


Kiss The Boys

by AngularNotions



Category: Criminal Minds, Suits (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-24
Updated: 2012-10-24
Packaged: 2017-11-16 22:47:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/544683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngularNotions/pseuds/AngularNotions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the movie Kiss The Girls, Harvey is abducted and abused horribly. When he finally gets home, it's up to Mike to help him pick up the pieces and start healing and moving on with his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"What time is it?"

Harvey glanced up to meet bloodshot blue eyes under heavy eyelids.

"Around midnight."

"Oh, that early? It feels later."

Mike had been killing himself all week on this case, tonight being no different, but Harvey finally felt like they were fully prepared.

"Let's go home. We're good for tomorrow."

"Really?" Mike perked up at bit at the idea of getting some sleep.

"Yes, let's go before I change my mind."

That was all Mike needed, and he was moving around the room quickly tidying up files, and collecting his messenger bag, tie and jacket. Harvey stood a little more slowly, not in as much of a rush and slid his jacket onto his shoulders. He watched Mike quietly for a minute before walking over to the table himself to collect a few things he wanted to have ready in the morning.

As he turned back towards his desk, Mike slammed full body into him, knocking files and papers flying and leaving them both stunned and a little breathless.

Mike's mouth dropped open and he stared at Harvey in trepidation for the hell he was surely about to catch for this.

Without even thinking, Harvey grabbed his lapels and pulled him in and kissed him hard. Mike stayed shocked for a few seconds before giving in to it. The kiss quickly became more urgent and hungry as their tongues explored the others mouth. When they finally separated to catch their breath they stared at each other in equal surprise.

Harvey had no idea whatsoever why he had just done that. It was as though his hands and body had acted without instruction from his brain and he had absolutely no idea what to do next. Up until that point he didn't thnk he had even looked at Mike in that way, or really, any man that way. He was completely at a loss for words, but seeing as he initiated the kiss he kept feeling as though he should explain, break the silence at least, but the words just wouldn't form in his mouth.

Mike's mouth opened and closed a few times, as he attempted to formulate a sentence of his own.

Harvey continued to be speechless, and was feeling beyond embarrassed at this point. He quietly released Mike's jacket and slid past him and walked out of the office to the elevator. His ears told him that Mike wasn't following, was likely still standing in the same position in the office, and he was grateful for that.

As the elevator doors closed he rubbed his face with his hands, trying desperately to come up with an explanation for what had just occurred.

Maybe they were just tired and out of it. Maybe he mistook Mike for someone else. Maybe….

Nothing seemed plausible except for the obvious. He was attracted to Mike.

This development put his head into a tailspin. He was a notorious womanizer, how in the hell had this happened?

The kiss had been absolutely incredible, like nothing he had ever felt before and the sensations it sent through his body had been electric.

He stopped himself from reminiscing on the kiss. It couldn't happen again so there was no point in thinking about it. Though he wasn't sure he could guarantee it wouldn't happen again, since it had been such a surprise and shock the first time.

He decided that distance and crowds were the way to go to move forward. If he had to work with Mike, he would make sure someone else was there to keep their actions in check. Otherwise, avoid Mike, at least until this strange attraction passed and he moved on to another object of prey.

Harvey had the strange feeling that he was fooling himself; that this wasn't going away anytime soon. How he felt about Mike was becoming more and more clear, this wasn't just a passing attraction, sexual or otherwise, he actually did care a great deal about Mike.

This was going to be a problem.

* * *

What in fresh hell had just happened?

Mike stood still as a statue in the office, even as Harvey rushed passed him he remained still. He had no idea how long he stayed that way, he wasn't paying any attention to time.

Harvey Specter had just kissed him.

_Harvey fucking Specter had just fucking kissed him._

He had absolutely no clue what this meant, where it was going, if anywhere or frankly what to even do at that moment.

Only a few minutes before he had been exhausted beyond belief, eagerly looking forward to crawling into bed. Now he was wide awake, adrenaline surging through his body.

His heart was singing. He was crazy in love with Harvey, but his rational side had always told him that nothing would ever happen so there was no point in hoping. He thought that he had done a really good job of getting his feelings under check too. He was now able to work easily in the same room with Harvey alone without feeling the pining in his chest.

But everything was completely and totally on its head now. He hadn't kissed Harvey, it had been the other way around, and his mind quickly established that there had to be something behind that fact. Was Harvey in love with him too? He didn't think so, though Harvey continued to surprise him frequently with help in various forms as Mike found himself in trouble again and again. The way he took care of things for Mike, keeping him safe, spoke volumes.

The way he had reacted after the kiss told him that Harvey was just as surprised as he was. This meant that he must not be in touch with his feelings for Mike yet, if he did indeed have some.

Finally Mike found his arms and legs again and starting towards the door of the office himself. He was sure that Harvey was probably already at home at that point, since he had left some time ago.

Hailing a cab, since he didn't think he was safe to ride at that point, he headed home himself. He would give Harvey the night to think, and then talk to him tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

Morning found Harvey even more restless than he had been the night before. He had barely slept, his mind roiling all night at what he had done and what it might mean.

The files were still on the floor when he went in; obviously Mike hadn't had the presence of mind to clean up last night.

Harvey took care of it quickly, didn't want anyone to notice anything amiss. He felt as though the words I KISSED MIKE were tattooed on his forehead and the self-consciousness was making it hard to really concentrate on the work he was supposed to be doing.

Donna strolled in, gave him a look, and announced that the clients were there. She inquired as to Mike's absence and asked if she should go get him, but Harvey waved her off. For once, Mike being late to work was not a problem for him.

They were barely five minutes in with the negotiations when the door swung open and Mike scampered in, issuing apologies at the client and then at Harvey. He attempted to make eye contact with Harvey, but Harvey couldn't do that, he looked away quickly. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mike looking at him a little confused and ever so slightly hurt, but he just kept on with what he was supposed to be doing, and that was negotiating a deal for his client.

Mike settled on a chair near the desk and started scribbling notes as they hashed things out. Harvey made sure to keep him in his sight, for what reason he wasn't sure, but he felt as though he needed to keep an eye on him.

They both walked the clients to the elevator when the meeting finished, his client very satisfied with the result.

Harvey attempted to skirt Mike and get back to the office without him following, but there was no such luck, the kid was quick.

They were going to talk about this, whether or not he wanted to, because Mike would never leave it alone.

Mike closed the door behind them as they went in and Harvey positioned himself behind his desk, using it as a buffer between them.

Mike turned and looked at him full on, and Harvey felt even more exposed.

"Are we going to talk about last night?"

Harvey wanted to say no very badly, but knew that would be unacceptable, the question was rhetorical. He needed to end this now, to stop any confusion and hopefully allow them to move forward and never speak of it again.

"I'm sorry about my behaviour last night, I was tired and out of it and it will never happen again."

Mike looked a bit crestfallen. And Harvey realized that maybe that wasn't what he wanted to hear. That rather than sweeping it under the rug, he would rather keep going in that direction. He had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, his own thoughts on the subject were such a jumble, he didn't think he could consider the idea right then.

His phone rang on his desk, _saved by the bell_ , he thought quickly.

"Harvey, let's do dinner, I have something I need to discuss with you."

Cameron Dennis, forgoing the formalities of saying hello and just getting to the point as per his usual method.

"Alright, where and when?"

"Let's say that Italian place I love, I'll pick you up around 8 and we can start talking in the car."

As Harvey arranged the meeting with Cameron and Jessica strolled into the office, Mike seemed to take the hint finally that they were finished discussing the illicit kiss for the time being. He gave Harvey a look that he intended to take up the subject again at a later date, and turned and left.

Jessica had arranged for a meeting with one of their larger shared clients that afternoon, which kept him from Mike for the rest of the day. Harvey was grateful for this; he needed a hell of a lot more time to think.

As he changed for dinner he finally took a minute to be curious as to what Cameron wanted to talk about with him. It had been about four months since he had attempted to destroy Harvey to save his own ass, and Harvey was only going to the dinner out of pure curiosity and to make his feelings about what had passed between them known.

Cameron was right on time and Harvey was still confused as to why he was being picked up at all. It wasn't like it was a date or anything, how was it possible that their discussion needed to start in the car rather than the restaurant.

He slid in the back of the car next to Cameron and nodded at him while keeping his face stern. He was still pissed and intended on showing that.

"Still angry with me eh? Well, I can't say I blame you, but you of all people should understand why I did it."

"Honestly, I don't, I may be willing to do a lot of things to win, but I would never sell out someone else like that."  
"You did all the time Harvey, when you worked for me, you just didn't know it."

Harvey realized he was right, the Clifford Danner case being one of the many that were bad.

"What do you want from me Cameron, because honestly, I'm not feeling charitable towards you right now."

"Why are you here then?"

"Because you asked me to be, and I wanted to make sure you weren't dragging me into more shit."

"I'm not, don't worry. I asked you to come to dinner tonight because you are going to help me Harvey, and I think you'll benefit too."

Harvey cocked his head, he was incredulous, how could this asshole think he would help him in any way whatsoever.

"I'm not helping you with anything, you are on your own."

"That's where you're wrong."

It happened so fast; Harvey barely saw it. Cameron's hand had moved to Harvey's neck so quickly, it was like a flash and the small prick he felt was over instantly. But he did see the needle in Cameron's hand as he pulled it away. He stared at Cameron for a few seconds before things got hazy. He didn't get time to ask what the hell had just happened before it all went black. He did know that his life was about to change forever.


	3. Chapter 3

Dirt, he could smell dirt, and musky dampness, like wet cement. His eyelids fluttered as he attempted to open them. A few attempts later he finally won the battle. It was dark, save for a small lamp on an old table next to him. He was on a bed, old, with an ornate wrought iron headboard. The walls were stone of some kind, and also looked old. There was no window, so he had no idea what time it was and the floor appeared to be dirt.

Attempting to lift his arms, he was met with resistance, courtesy of the drug that Cameron had injected into him.

Unable to move yet, he used his ears to get more data about his whereabouts. But it was quiet, save for a dripping somewhere and odd shuffling noises, also outside of the room. He gazed over the walls until he found the one with the door. It was an old wooden door, very heavy, with a heavy brass lock and a small window panel with iron bars crossing it.

Attempting again to move his arms and legs, he was more successful and with some effort able to at least sit up and take in his surroundings more. The room was tiny, with barely enough room for the bed and side table. Swinging his legs over the side, he pushed himself into a standing position and made his way to the door.

He didn't expect it to be unlocked, but tried anyway.

Then peering through the tiny window, he could see other doors with similar windows. The hall was very dark, even with the ribbons of light coming from each door.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He called out hopefully.

He didn't receive an answer, but heard some shuffling in the other rooms, and even thought he saw a shadow pass over the light in one window.

"Hello? Someone?"

"Shhh, be quiet or they will punish you."  
"What? Who? Who locked me in here?"

"The collectors, just shut up or you'll get the rest of us in trouble too."

Well this was ominous. Harvey had been doing well in holding back his quelling panic at being kidnapped and now locked in some room in a basement, but he felt a quiver begin in his chest. He didn't know who had him, though he knew with certainty that Cameron was involved. He also didn't know why he was being held captive, he didn't know what they wanted, but would have been happy to pay any sum to be let go at that moment. He also had a niggling in the back of his mind that told him he had heard the name 'The Collectors' somewhere, but couldn't place it at the moment as he took in his situation.

"Why are we locked in down here? What's going on?"  
A different voice from the first answered him this time and the voice was much deeper and more authoritative sounding.

"You will find out soon enough, now shut up."

This too, sounded very ominous, but in the end he decided to just be quiet like they said. He didn't want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt.

It was then that he noticed that he was wearing different clothes. His expensive suit had been replaced with a loose pair of drawstring pajama bottoms and a light t-shirt, and nothing else. Horror spread through him at the thought that someone had stripped him naked and redressed him.

The sound of a door opening caught his attention. It seemed to be at the end of the hall and the light it let in was brief as the door was re-latched, and by the sounds of things, re-locked as well.

Heavy footsteps came down the hall towards him, and then there was a face on the other side of the bars, smirking at him.

Harvey stumbled backwards in shock at the sudden appearance and almost fell at the end of the bed.

"Good, you're finally awake, took you long enough."

Harvey just regarded him for a minute, taking in the face, trying to remember if he had seen it before but came up empty. Now might be a good time to ask questions though.

"What do you want from me? Why am I here?"

"We want you Harvey, you're special, and perfect, and need to be cultivated properly."

He had no idea what in the hell that meant, but it didn't sound good and he couldn't help the slight repulsion he felt at the expression on the other man's face.

He heard jingling and realized he was opening the door and coming in. Harvey quickly tried to measure his possibility of success against the guy in hand-to-hand combat, but realized he would definitely lose. The guy was huge, taller, burly and potentially armed. He then attempted to calculate his odds of outrunning the guy, should he make it to the door. This too, seemed unlikely, since the room was small and the guy could easily block him from getting to the door.

The man closed the door behind him, relocking it with a key on a massive key ring that appeared to be out of the 1800's. This entire setup was so bizarre, Harvey just couldn't get his head around it, and mainly couldn't figure out what they wanted.

The man turned to face him again, appearing calm and like this was entirely business as usual. He slid his jacket off and laid it over the end of the bed. Harvey just watched this performance quietly, mind working in circles.

Then the man stepped towards him, grasping his arms quickly and essentially holding him in place. He pulled Harvey up against him full length and looked down at him lustily. The puzzle pieces clicked together in Harvey's head. He remembered why he knew the name 'The Collectors'.

He had heard of them through a friend of his in the police force. Donny was investigating several murders in the area where men of fairly high standing or excellence were kidnapped and were seemingly held somewhere for several months before their bodies were found tied to trees in the woods. The police referred to them as the 'Collectors' because of their penchant for collecting impressive victims. Harvey realized that since the nickname was known amongst the other possible victims there with him, that one of the perpetrators must actually be a cop who found the title amusing and had shared it with the others. It had never been released to the media, there was no other way for it to be known. Knowing this did him little good at the moment however.

Donny had told him that the purpose of their collecting was purely sexual. The men were used essentially as sex toys for the time they were held captive until they were murdered. It seemed that the perpetrators got off on dominating men who were powerful in their regular lives. The police didn't know what led to the murders, since they didn't seem to occur in order with the disappearances. They assumed that somehow each victim must have upset or defied their captors and therefore paid the price.

Harvey's body felt cold at this revelation. He knew why he was there now, and he knew the only way he was leaving was likely dead. Money, prestige, power, connections; none of them would not get him out of this. In fact, he was completely powerless now.

The man turned Harvey and shoved him on to the bed on his back roughly before taking off his pants in one swift move. Harvey wasn't sure when he had untied the drawstring, but it didn't entirely matter at that moment.

Instinct to protect himself took over, and he quickly crawled backwards away from the other man's touch and grabbing hands. He attempted a few kicks but quickly found his legs grasped and he was yanked back down the bed before the guy was on him between his legs, holding him down with his entire body. Harvey's breath became panicky, fight or flight taking over he tried shoving and thrashing and kicking but got nowhere.

The man just let him do this for a few minutes, clearly thinking that he would get it out of his system, before restraining him entirely with an arm across his chest. The eyes that gazed down on him now looked deadly. Harvey realized he had an ultimate choice to make, either he be raped, or he would die. Suddenly Mike's face flashed in front of him, and he felt a pang in his heart. He wanted to see him again now so badly it hurt and he hated how things had last ended. He had to stay alive for Mike; maybe someday he would see him again.

He relaxed in his fighting; showing that he was relenting and the man's gaze returned to one of lust and satisfaction at winning.

"Harvey Specter never loses they say, I guess that isn't entirely true."

Harvey bit down on his cheek to fight the urge to spit in the guy's eye. He knew that would not help him at all, despite how good it would feel for the few seconds.

The guy laughed deep and throaty at him before reaching down between them to undo his own pants.

The sound of that zipper sounded far louder than it really was in Harvey's ears. He heard a bottle pop open and then without any preparation other than lube on his own cock, the other man was pushing himself inside of Harvey forcefully.

He fought the urge to squirm, knowing it would only prolong what was clearly inevitable at that point and make the pain worse. He just wanted it over as fast as possible. He also knew he wasn't going to give the bastard the satisfaction of him screaming, or making any sound at all. He had every intention of lying there like a corpse, hopefully making it a much less satisfactory experience.

As the guy thrust roughly into him, increasing in speed and strength, he had to use every reserve of control he had not to cry out in pain.

The guy leaned down and attempted to kiss him, but Harvey quickly turned his head. The guy may take his ass, but he was not taking his mouth. The last person he had kissed was Mike and he intended on it staying that way.

The other man laughed and bit his earlobe before forcibly placing his hand on Harvey's jaw and making him turn to face him. Harvey clamped his mouth shut, and glared at him hard. The guy laughed harder before slamming his cock into him fully, knocking all the air out of Harvey's chest. The guy mercifully let go of his chin but then he repeated the slamming thrust before grunting and thrusting a few more times quickly, coming inside of Harvey.

Once he was finished he smiled smugly at Harvey and rose, doing up his pants slowly on purpose before retrieving his jacket and sliding it back on as well. Held down by pain Harvey could only watch him.

The guy leaned down one more time before he left, patted Harvey's cheek and said "good boy" and then left.

Harvey lay there for a few minutes longer, waiting until the pain and burn subsided a bit before sitting up to attempt to figure out how bad it was. He didn't see blood, which was a good sign, so he found his pants and slid them back on.

Then he crawled up to the top corner of the bed and sat curled into a ball, watching the door and listening.

He felt the tears slide down his cheeks, but he didn't outright cry. He had won one battle, the guy had never kissed him.


	4. Chapter 4

Jessica came to his cubicle for the fourth time, asking the same question.

"Where the hell is Harvey? Have you heard from him, he has missed three appointments today?"

Mike wasn't sure why everyone seemed to think that he knew where Harvey was, because he didn't. Frankly, he was getting a little concerned, no one had heard from Harvey since the day previous and that just wasn't like him. He had called Harvey's cell phone around 100 times, with no answer, just the curt answering machine message.

"Jessica, do you think something has happened? I mean… Harvey doesn't just disappear."

"He may not, but he seems to have today. If you hear from him, tell him to get off his ass and call me, and he better have a good excuse or he's fired."

She clearly didn't share Mike's concern about Harvey's disappearance. He got up and headed up to Harvey's office and Donna, maybe she knew something.

As he came down the hall towards her, she looked up at him and he could see on her face that she was worried too and clearly knew nothing herself.

"Where is he Donna?"

"I don't know, this is really weird, this isn't Harvey. What was he doing last night?"

"I don't know, well yes I do remember that he was going for dinner with Cameron."

Donna appeared a bit more alarmed at this news; clearly she didn't know that.

"What's wrong, do you think he did something? I can't imagine he would do something to Harvey, would he?"

"I don't know," she squeaked out.

Mike realized that they were probably both overreacting, but a feeling in his gut told him that something was very wrong.

"Let's call Cameron, maybe he knows where Harvey is."

"I, ok." She seemed a bit unsure of this idea, but went along with it. Quickly dialing the number she waited for an answer. After a few seconds she hung up, "answering machine."

"Do we have any other numbers for him?"

"No, just this one, it's his cell, he always answers his cell."

Now Mike was getting scared. What if they had been killed in a car crash or something.

"Maybe we should call the police."

Donna nodded, and picked the phone back up.

As she discussed Harvey's disappearance and inquired into any possible information they might have, it became clear she was getting nothing. Mike was surprised when he heard her ask if she could file a missing person's report and realized that that wasn't a bad idea, it would get the police involved in looking for Harvey. But her face fell when she heard the answer and Mike remembered that Harvey had to be missing for 24 hours before they could file.

After she had hung up, they both sat thinking for a few minutes longer.

"Do you have a spare key to his place?"

Donna looked up and smiled quickly, "yes, I do, let's go."

The ride over was agonizing; Mike hoped that they would find Harvey at home, safe and sound. He was even willing to deal with the inevitable anger that would follow them letting themselves into his apartment without his approval.

Donna handed him the key and he unlocked the door and they both crept in quietly. He wasn't sure why they were creeping so much, but went along with it anyway. The apartment was impeccable, neat and tidy, and also empty of anyone. He could see the suit Harvey had worn the day previous hanging on a hanger on a door handle, ready to go to the dry cleaners and no other evidence of his being there recently.

"Donna, what do we do?"

Donna took in a shaky breath and answered, "we file a missing person's report in a few hours."

Mike nodded, it was their only choice, and the feeling of dread in his chest increased.

* * *

Every time the door opened at the end of the hall, he felt cold fear trickle through his body. He felt incredibly guilty every time the feet that followed went to the door of another victim. The others didn't try to be quiet as he had and their screams pierced him.

Some time later, he had no concept of time in there, he heard the door open again and he tensed up. When he heard the next door open and it wasn't his he relaxed. But then he heard talking and another door opened and then another. When his door opened he gripped his legs against himself protectively, but a different man poked his head in and told him to get up and follow him. When he didn't move immediately, the man stepped in to the room and physically dragged Harvey off the bed and out into the hallway.

It was the first time that he got a good look at the other prisoners and he was horrified when he recognized a few faces, and they clearly recognized him. They were esteemed musicians, artists and even another lawyer. None of which were close acquaintances of his, but he knew who they were nonetheless.

They were led down the hall to another door, and then through another door immediately to the left, which housed a set of stairs that opened up into a large circular room that was well lit with candles everywhere.

Harvey noticed a circle of chairs around the middle of the room with a piano in the centre. They were each led to a chair and instructed to sit down. Once they were all in position their captors positioned themselves on the outside of the circle, clearly to keep anyone from doing anything stupid like running.

Harvey studied the faces of the other victims, and felt even guiltier for the relief he had felt every time it hadn't been him.

"Mr. Smith, I think it's time you regaled us with your talent, don't you?"

He wasn't sure who Mr. Smith was, but no one moved for a few seconds. Then slowly, a man on the other side of the circle stood and made his way to the piano. He sat down gingerly, and with a look of great pain on his face, began to play beautifully.

Harvey realized what was happening. They were making them perform, sharing their talents and showing just how special they each were. His repulsion grew ten-fold. These bastards were unbelievably sick.

The bastards in question were all watching the performance with soft, pleased expressions on their faces, mutually smug in their own ability to capture that talent.

Harvey wasn't sure what he would have to do if they asked him to perform, but he knew he wouldn't do it.

After Mr. Smith had finished the piece he had been playing, he sat quietly at the piano, waiting for instruction. Clearly this performance circle was a regular thing; they all knew how it operated.

"Mr. Smith, that was beautiful, you may re-take your seat."

Mr. Smith quickly scuttled back to his wooden chair, glad to be out of the spotlight.

Harvey noticed that the voice that he kept hearing was actually coming from above them. He glanced upwards and noticed a balcony that spanned the room and attempted to see the source of the voice, but the shaking shadows created by the candles gave away nothing.

"I'm sure you have all noticed that we have a new guest here with us, Mr. Harvey Specter, one of New York's most noted attorneys. I'm sure you will all welcome him warmly as one of us and we hope he will stay with us for a good long time."

The warning was evident in that statement. If he wanted to live, he had to behave. It sent a shiver down Harvey's spine.

"Mr. Greenfield, perhaps you would like a turn?"

Harvey was grateful that the attention was no longer on him. The Mr. Greenfield referred to stood and took his position at the piano and began playing.

This went on for some time. Other instruments were brought out and a violinist played as well as a cellist. An actor was forced to recite a monologue and a dancer to perform a solo.

When the captors appeared to finally be satisfied with their theatrics of the evening, they were all led back to their separate quarters and locked in.

Harvey repositioned himself in the corner of the bed and listened for the door again.

But his mind was also working quickly; the movement to the performance room might possibly also provide an opportunity for escape. He needed to pay close attention the next time they were led there.


	5. Chapter 5

When the police finally relented and issued the missing person's report, Donna and Mike found they weren't that relieved. This was a serious step and it really did confirm that Harvey was indeed missing, possibly not of his own accord.

As they sat in the hall awaiting a detective they silently gripped each other's hands. Mike had always presumed Donna knew how he felt about Harvey, but she had never said. He was grateful for her support though, and would do everything to support her as well. Harvey was like family to her, even if it was slightly dysfunctional.

A detective who was in his late thirties with short-cropped hair approached them.

"Hey Donna, what's going on?"

"Donny! I'm glad it's you. Harvey's missing."

Clearly Donna knew this fellow, but Mike was still in the dark. Donny turned to him and held out his hand.  
"Detective Donny Graham, you are?"

"Mike Ross, Harvey's associate."

"Ah, the wonder kid, he told me about you."

Mike wondered what exactly he had told Donny, and how in hell Harvey knew this guy in the first place, but he knew there was probably a lot about Harvey he didn't know.

"Listen, let's go to a room and try to sort this out."

They followed him to a small interview room and sat down.

"What makes you think Harvey is missing?"  
Mike spoke first, "he hasn't been seen or heard from since leaving the office last night. He was supposed to be meeting Cameron Dennis for dinner but we can't reach him either."

Donny's entire stance altered at the name of Cameron Dennis. Suddenly all friendly banter was gone and he was all business.

"What time was he meeting Cameron?"

"I think he said 8."

"Was Cameron picking him up?"

Now Mike was getting scared, it seemed like this Donny already knew what had happened, but was withholding the information from them.  
"Yes, what is it? What is going on?" Please tell me Harvey's ok, Mike begged silently.

Donny leapt out of his chair and tore out into the bullpen full of the other detectives, giving orders to a few of them there. Mike couldn't hear what he was saying, but it was serious enough that the ones he spoke to jumped into action on their phones and computers, and two even put their coats on and ran out the door.

Mike had had enough of being in the dark and ran out to the detectives.

"What is going on? What has happened to Harvey?"

The detective put a hand on his chest to stop him moving forward.

"Go back to the interview room, I will fill you in, I promise, but I need to get things going here ok?"  
Donny looked at him meaningfully and Mike's heart sank, the news wasn't good, it was really bad.

He stumbled backwards a few steps before Donna caught his arm and led him back to the room. They sat again, holding each other's hands and leaning into each other.

It was a full half hour later that Donny finally returned to the room, closing the door behind him in an almost morose way.

He sat down quietly and regarded them for a few seconds before beginning.

"We have been tracking a kidnap and murder ring for sometime now. I'm sure you've read in the papers about the bodies that keep turning up in the woods near Chesapeake Park, well it's all linked. We think that there is a group who are kidnapping and holding captive men who are, shall we say, of impressive standing or ability. They are musicians, politicians, artists, you name it and yes, lawyers. Recently I have noticed a connection between the disappearances and one Cameron Dennis. It seems that the three most recent disappearances, including Harvey, took place when each of the men were out for dinner with Cameron. It is always at 8, and he always picks them up. We think that he has some connection to the real perpetrators but we're not sure what."

Mike was breathing hard at this point, trying to process the information.

"Are you saying Harvey is dead?"  
"No, I'm optimistic that he is still alive, so long as he's cooperating. We don't usually find a body until many months after the initial disappearance, so I'm hopeful we have time."

Donna found her voice and asked the question Mike was dreading the answer to.

"Why are they taking them, what do they want from these men, from… from H-Harvey?" She stuttered slightly on his name.

Donny looked down at the table, and swallowed hard before answering.

"The purpose of the entire operation appears to be sexual, they are used as slaves, degraded and stripped of their power, the evidence we have been able to collect has not been able to provide us with any usable DNA, but the bodies paint a clear picture of what takes place."

Mike felt sick immediately. He wasn't sure he could hear anymore, but knew he had to, if he was going to help Harvey in any way, he had to know what was going on.

"How many have disappeared and how many bodies have you found?" He needed to get an idea of how much time they might have, though it ate at him that Harvey was being tortured, probably at that moment and any time they took would mean more pain for him.

"So far, twelve men have disappeared, well thirteen now with Harvey."

Mike gave a sour laugh, "lucky number thirteen."

"We have only found five bodies, so that means that there are still eight missing persons."

"How the hell have you not found these guys sooner? They have to have made a mistake at some point?"

"The evidence on the bodies is completely degraded by the time we find them, I suspect they do that on purpose, wait for rainy nights. Cameron is the first real connection I have found, and we are trying to locate him right now, but we don't have much evidence on him, other than the fact that he dined with three of the missing men."

Mike's mind was churning with all of this information. He had to find the connection between Cameron and the bastards holding Harvey, mainly if he was one of them, or just a facilitator. He wracked his brain and then thought of someone, Lola Jensen; maybe she could dig into Cameron's life and find something that could help.

"Listen, I need to get to work on this, I will keep you updated, but if you hear anything, let me know."

Donny dolled out business cards to both of them, Mike just stuffed it into his pocket to be forgotten about. He had no hope whatsoever of the police actually finding Harvey in time, he needed to find him himself.

As they left the police station, Donna had to practically run to keep up with him.

"Mike, what are you doing, you clearly have some kind of plan, what is it?"

"You heard him Donna, they don't have a fucking clue where Harvey is, and time is ticking. You and I both know that Harvey cooperating for an extended period of time is very unlikely. I have to find him now."

"Mike, please don't do anything stupid."

"Don't worry about it, I'll let you know if I find anything." And with that he jumped into a cab and headed for Lola's office, hoping she would still be there.

* * *

Harvey awoke with a jerk. He wasn't aware of when he had fallen asleep or how long he had been out, but he heard the door close at the end of the hall and knew why he was awake.

He tensed as usual, muscles aching, listening for the footsteps and where they would go.

He heard two sets of footsteps this time, and wondered briefly if they were going for another performance piece, until he heard the conversation.

"Who are you going to this evening?" One voice asked; it was a little high-pitched for a man, but still menacing.

"I think I'll try our newest guest tonight, he is quite beautiful to look at."

Harvey felt his limbs go cold, that meant him. He quickly gathered himself up in his little ball, muscles screaming at being held back up again like that, but it was his only defense mechanism at that point.

The key jingled in the lock on his door and then it swung open to admit his new attacker. He was noticeably younger than the last, and Harvey remembered seeing him at the performance circle. He was about the same height as Harvey, but clearly worked out a lot more and likely benefited from the assistance of steroids. His head was shaved and there were multiple tattoos snaking down his arms.

"Good evening, how are you? My goodness, but you are breathtaking."

Harvey scowled at him. Like the last, he wasn't going to make this overly enjoyable if he could help it.

"Uh oh, someone's in a bad mood, did I wake you up?"

The man removed his t-shirt and folded it neatly before putting it on the table. He continued to talk to Harvey as he removed his shoes and undid his pants before sliding them down and folding them as well.

"Why don't you relax a bit, I'll treat you ok, don't worry."

Harvey didn't believe that for a fucking second, and his face showed that clearly.

"Yes, I heard that Carl got to you first, he can be rough, but we aren't all that way. Now come here."

The instruction was definitely a command. Harvey vacillated, he knew what the punishment would be for disobeying, but his ego was still there just enough to make him do it anyway.

"Harvey, making this difficult will only result in a bad ending for you, and I know you know that. Now come here."

His entire body was shaking in fear and anger at being degraded like this, but he forced his muscles into command and slowly slid to the edge of the bed, averting his eyes from the naked form in front of him.

"Good boy. Now stand up and take your clothes off."

He stumbled at bit at standing, legs shaky under him, but somehow he managed to do as asked. He continued to avoid eye contact and instead glared at the wall behind the man in front of him.

"You are so beautiful," he traced his fingers down Harvey's chest and then across his cheekbones, "lie down." This was also more of a command than a request.

As the other man began kissing his way over Harvey's body, he did everything he could to have an out of body experience at that moment. He wasn't sure what was worse, being raped hard, painfully and fast, or this slow, deliberate disintegration of his dignity.

When the other man attempted to kiss his mouth, he again turned his head; he was determined to protect that, if nothing else.

"Harvey, what are you doing?" Was the stern question.

"Please, just please let me have this one thing, you can do whatever else you want to me, but don't make me kiss you."

He hoped that begging would do something to help him. He knew damn right well that it could go either way, but he hoped for some tiny shred of human kindness in this beast lying on top of him.

The man reached up and brushed away a few errant strands of Harvey's hair before he whispered 'ok' and Harvey breathed a sigh of relief, though it was short lived.

The second assault took longer; this man took his time over Harvey's body, touching and kissing him all over, before flipping him over and taking him roughly but slowly. Harvey was hopeful that he wouldn't last long once he got to the actual fucking, but that didn't happen.

Like the first, he took his time getting dressed again before leaving finally, reiterating one more time how beautiful he thought Harvey was before he locked the door.

Harvey never wanted to hear someone say that to him ever again.

* * *

It was past midnight by the time he got to Lola's, but she was still there. She looked quite surprised when he came running in all breathless and panicky, but once he explained what he wanted and why, she was on it immediately.

It took almost an hour before she finally found it, the missing connection. Cameron had received three equal payments of one million dollars over the last few months to offshore accounts. The most recent was the night previous, when Harvey disappeared. Cameron was selling these men to the disgusting bastards. He was profiting from their capture, torture and death.

He had no idea if the police had found Cameron or not, but for Cameron's sake, it was best they found him before Mike did.

Lola dug further into where the payments had come from, but couldn't find anything. She promised she would keep trying and let him know if she found anything else.

Mike left feeling more armed with what he needed. Cameron knew who the captors were; therefore, he probably knew where Harvey was being held. The bastard better be ready to talk when Mike found him, and he had a good idea where Cameron was at that moment.

He arrived at the courthouse twenty minutes later and saw the light on in the DA's office. Cameron knew the police were on to him, and so was seeking help and protection from his friends, if he had any, in the DA.

Mike stormed right into the office and without even thinking punched Cameron right in the nose.

"You son of a bitch! What the hell?" Cameron wiped the blood out from under his nose and glared at Mike.

"Where is he? I know you know where he is, so start talking. How could you do this to someone who you mentored?"

"Listen you little shit, I have no idea what you are talking about ok?"  
"Harvey you motherfucker, where is he? I know you sold him for a million bucks."

Cameron looked briefly alarmed at this; Mike knew his dirty little secret. He regained his composure quickly though.

"Look kid, I don't know why you think I have anything to do with Harvey's disappearance, but as I told the cops an hour ago, I dropped him off at his place after dinner and I haven't spoken to him since. I have no idea what happened to him."

"You and I both know that is bullshit. You are profiting off of what those sick bastards are doing to those men, selling someone who actually considered you a friend. How could you?"

Cameron snorted a laugh.

"Harvey was not a friend, never was, and we both knew that. Besides, we both know you have no proof as to anything happening, at least none that can be used in court."

"Really, that's how your going to play this, you selfish, disgusting waste of a human being. You claim to be noble, that everything you have done is for the betterment of people's lives, that you put guilty people away, but you are no better than a serial killer. You know what they are doing to him? Hmm? They are using him as a personal sex slave." Cameron's face took on a bit of a disgusted pose at that, evidently he wasn't fully clear on what would happen to Harvey once he handed him over. "I'm giving you one more chance, where the fuck is he?"

Cameron sighed and glanced at the door, the DA still hadn't come back, despite their fighting.

"I don't know. The drop off is a pre-arranged place where we transferred him from one car to another, after that, I don't know. I don't even know who I hand him over to, they cover their faces."

Mike shook his head at him. He was in disbelief that anyone could be that cruel and inhuman.

"Where was the drop point?"  
"At a pier in the south end."

"You will pay for this one day, I will make sure of it."

With that Mike stormed out. He had no idea where to go next or what to do. He had gained little in new information because he knew the drop point would be a dead end. He just hoped Lola could find something else out about who or where the money came from. He stepped out into the icy air and shoved his hands in his pockets for warmth and felt something in the right one. He pulled it out and realized it was Harvey's keys to his apartment.

He decided to go back to Harvey's place, if only to be a bit closer to him, but he hoped that somehow there might be some clues there. It was unlikely, but he didn't know what to do next.

As he opened the door and walked in, he saw again the suit Harvey had hung on the door handle of his bedroom to go to the dry cleaners and Mike was overcome with emotion. Harvey had no idea at that moment when he did that basic domestic thing what was going to happen to him that night and the innocence of that broke Mike's heart. He walked over to it and sat on the floor beside it. Laying his face against the softness of the jacket he could smell Harvey on it and he started to cry. He hated feeling this helpless.


	6. Chapter 6

Through small little bits of evidence Harvey had determined that he had spent around thirty-six days in this hell so far. Movements to and from the performance room had proved fruitless in terms of providing an escape. All he knew was that he could see daylight coming through near the end of the hall where the door to the stairs was. But he knew he had no chance in hell of making it down that hall running while they moved as a group. His captors kept syringes full of God knows what on them at all times, he knew they would use one on him in a second if he tried to run.

He had also determined that there were exactly five men responsible for his being held captive and repeatedly raped. Each of them had visited him once the first few days, presumably to try out the new toy. But the burly one, who he now knew as Carl and the younger bald man whose name was Jeff were his most frequent visitors. Jeff in particular came to him every day. He seemed to be quite obsessed with Harvey and had recently taken to bringing a camera with him. Harvey didn't think it could get more disturbing until the first time he had brought out the camera and started taking pictures.

He had only seen Terence a few times, and the man only wanted his cock sucked each time. He didn't know the names of the other two, but their appearances were straight-forward quick fuck sessions with no talking.

He was curled in his corner as usual when he heard the door open at the end of the hall. He didn't tense as much anymore when he heard it, acceptance of his fate was starting to sink in, despite his efforts to try to fight it. This actually scared him a little, but it was a natural human instinct to adapt, even if he hated it.

He heard two voices and they sounded strained, like they had been running or something as they came down the hall.

"Which room is he going into?"

"Terence said the one next to Harvey, it's empty."

Harvey processed this information and realized a new victim was arriving. He wondered who the poor bastard was, and if he knew them.

He heard them open the door next to his and the noises of them replacing the guys clothes and positioning him on the squeaky bed before the door closed again and the lock was turned.

Jeff's face appeared in front of Harvey's door, causing him to jump, but the other man only waved and said "Hiya, beautiful," before walking away again.

When they had left the hall, Harvey laid back down and attempted to sleep, though he kept one ear listening for any sounds from the next room of the new man awakening.

He managed to doze for what he thought was a few hours, but it was mostly time spent thinking about Mike. This had become a bit of a norm for him as well. Thinking about Mike was his only respite from the reality he found himself in. It was his only grip on hope that he would make it out of there.

He heard the bed squeak as the other man roused next door. Harvey waited to see if he would call out like he himself had done the first night there, but the other man stayed quiet.

Harvey knew it was a performance night, as they did that exercise every other evening, and wondered if they would bring the new man as well.

When he heard the door open at the end of the hall, he stood up to be ready to go, fighting only made things worse. As he stepped out of his room, he didn't see any new faces so he just shuffled down the hall with the rest of them as usual.

Once they were seated, he heard arguing behind him and realized there was a new voice involved, the new victim was clearly not happy about all of this, not that any of them were really.

Harvey turned to see what was happening and his gaze met that of Travis Tanner and his breath caught in his throat. Travis stopped fighting and just stared at Harvey in shock for a few seconds before trying to walk towards him. He was caught under the arms by Terence and Jeff and held back.

"Harvey, you're alive! What the fuck is going on? Why are we here."

Harvey didn't know if he should answer truthfully or not, since he would likely find out for himself that night, but despite their earlier issues he wanted to at least warn him a bit, to protect him even. At the same time, he was on thin ice in this situation; he had to be careful not to get himself into any trouble.

"Just do what they tell you."

Jeff nodded at him, clearly that was a satisfactory response and they dragged the other lawyer to a chair that had been brought in for him.

To his credit, Travis did sit still and stopped fighting, but that was likely because he was in a constant state of horror at what was unfolding in front of him.

Harvey couldn't help but watch him during this, he felt a kinship towards him now, since although it now felt like a normal horrible routine for him, he knew how much this was to take in. He still remembered what it felt like that first night himself. He wracked his brain to figure out a way to warn him about what was coming, but got nothing and it was killing him.

He could see Carl eyeballing Travis and knew that he had every intention of being the first, like he was with Harvey and this was the last thing Harvey wanted to happen. Somehow he had to find a way to convince Carl to choose him over Travis that night, just to protect him from the worst. He could feel Jeff's eyes on him, and as usual, the younger man's infatuation with him creeped him out. But then it hit him, maybe he could convince Jeff to trade with Carl, since Jeff actually seemed fairly easily convinced of things, especially when they came from Harvey, he felt it was his best chance. He realized what he was setting himself up for, but he already knew what to expect, even though it was pure hell, he knew he was able to get through it, Travis was clueless and still innocent to what they wanted from him.

Jeff had sauntered over to stand behind Harvey uncomfortably close by that point, as he normally did. This time, Harvey used the closeness to his advantage. He made a motion that he wanted to talk to Jeff and the younger man bent down obscenely close to his face.

"Is Carl planning on spending the evening with Travis tonight?"

Jeff looked at him a little surprised and confused, but nodded.

"Please do me this favour, switch with Carl, you know how he was with me the first time, I don't want that for Travis, you are more gentle." Harvey hated saying that last bit, because in truth, rape was rape, it didn't really matter how much the attacker tried to be nice. Moreover, Jeff could be quite rough as well, but it was not nearly as brutal as what Carl could do.

Jeff regarded him for a few minutes, clearly not pleased about the idea, but as Harvey suspected, he was amenable just because it was Harvey who had asked. He wondered briefly if the kid was in love with him or something.

The younger man stood back up, nodded at Harvey and walked around the circle to where Carl was standing. Harvey watched in interest at he spoke into Carl's ear, and as Carl's head turned and he stared right at Harvey, a sneer formed on his lips. Harvey wondered what in hell Jeff had said to him, but it seemed as though Carl now had the idea that Harvey wanted him badly, which was furthest from the truth.

He had no choice but to play along though, in order for this scheme to work, and held Carl's gaze for a few seconds, but didn't smile.

He glanced back down to Travis who was staring at him curiously, evidently he had watched this entire exchange, but without knowledge of what they were actually saying or talking about, he was quite confused. Harvey just nodded at him once, before returning his eyes to the floor, where they remained for the rest of the performance. Carl had sidled around and now stood close behind him, but Harvey just ignored him.

As they were led back to their rooms, Carl remained glued to his side, with one hand on Harvey's ass. Travis was walking behind them, and Harvey knew he could clearly see this, but there was nothing he could do. He just walked into his room with Carl right behind him, carefully avoiding looking back at Travis and waited for Carl to begin.

Carl seemed to take the trade request as a reason to really up the ante. He began with Harvey on his back on the bed and finished with Harvey on his hands and knees. It was the first time Harvey had made a sound during an attack, but he couldn't contain the whimper of pain as Carl pounded into him from behind.

The only good thing about Carl was that he was pretty quick, very brutal, but fast. When he had finished, he dressed as usual and left Harvey, giving him a wink and a smirk on his way out. Harvey stood gingerly and retrieved his clothes. As he sat down on the side of the bed after he got dressed he heard a strange noise under the bed. It was a thud type of sound and he noticed that the bed now seemed to be sagging a little in the middle.

He slid slowly down onto his hands and knees and peered under. It was dark so he started patting the ground with his hand, trying to feel what had made the sound. Then his hand hit metal. It felt like a long flat piece of iron, and he realized it was one of the supports for the bed. Carl's enthusiastic performance that evening had broken it, since the bed was quite old, it hadn't been able to hold up. He slid the piece of metal out and stared at it. All he could think was that he was looking at his freedom. He finally had a weapon.

He considered for a few moments how it would work best and decided that he would wait until someone was coming into his room, and surprise attack them with it. He knew he wouldn't be bothered again that night, so he quickly hid his weapon where he could easily retrieve it and laid down on the now misshapen bed.

Then he heard the bed squeaking next door and he was returned to the reality that Travis was going through hell at that moment. He couldn't hear Travis making any sounds though and he realized that he was probably employing the same method of begrudging cooperation that Harvey had. Giving in, but just enough to stay alive and not putting any effort into it either.

Some time later, the squeaking stopped and he heard the door open and close next door. Then suddenly his door opened and Jeff came in. Harvey silently cursed himself for not being ready with his weapon, but Jeff only came and sat down next to him, putting a hand on Harvey's thigh.

"Are you ok? I could hear what he was doing to you and I was concerned."

Harvey couldn't help but wonder what kind of mental insanity this man had. He was concerned about Harvey while he was busy raping another man next door. Who the fuck was this guy?

He couldn't say any of this out loud though, so just said "I'm fine."

"Do you want me to stay with you?" He looked hopeful at this but Harvey quickly shook his head.

"I just need to sleep, I'll be fine, but thank you."

He hoped that he sounded plausible enough in his gratitude, because he certainly didn't mean it.

Jeff looked disappointed but appeared to buy it nonetheless. He leaned down and kissed Harvey's cheek and temple before leaving.

Somehow word had got around that Harvey did not want to be kissed on the mouth. He had no idea why or how this was just ok with all of them, though he suspected Jeff had something to do with it, but he never caught any flack for it. None of them questioned him about it either, which he found strange.

Harvey settled after that, his body ached fiercely from what Carl had done to him, but he had something else growing in his chest; hope and anticipation. For a few agonizing seconds he realized that if he were successful in getting away, he would be leaving behind all of the other captives, including Travis. But he knew he couldn't help them during his own escape, he would have to find another way.

* * *

Thirty-six days, Mike rubbed his face after he glanced at the calendar. Harvey had been missing for thirty-six days.

He had turned Harvey's office into a war room to be used in finding him. He had maps and scraps of paper tacked onto all of the walls. Not to mention assorted other bits of evidence he had collected in his never ending search for clues.

Donny had been very eager to help at first, but as he got another case, he had been mostly absent for the last few weeks. Donny's partner Jeff, a young guy with a shaved head, a lot of tattoos and muscles that were clearly chemically created, was the one who seemed to be around most.

At first, Mike had been quite grateful for the extra help in searching for Harvey. But the guy had proven himself to be more of a hindrance than help, and he was also pretty creepy to boot. He always seemed to make little comments about how good-looking Harvey was, and how he could see why they had taken him, and so on.

As it was, he was alone that night. After finishing going through the multiple papers he sifted through daily looking for information, he decided it was time to head back out to the woods. He had given blood and sold most of his own possessions and had bought a crappy car to get around with. He needed it to travel to the woods where the previous bodies were found. Mike felt as though if he were there each night, looking for Harvey, he would be able to save him should they tie him to a tree out there.

He had found nothing so far, but that didn't stop his nightly ritual.

As the branches crunched under his shoes he moved his flashlight back and forth methodically, doing his best to search every single tree he passed for anything. He had mapped out a grid of the wooded area and then a route to take, so he was able to be thorough in his searching each evening. After the usual three hours he went back to his car and sat behind the wheel without starting it.

Looking at that calendar had been the first time Mike had realized just how long it had been. His life without Harvey felt hollow, but the for the first time he realized that he may never see him again and he felt dead inside.

After a few minutes, he started the car and after a few failed attempts with the busted clutch finally got it into gear and headed home.

Home had become Harvey's place. Since he had sold almost everything he owned to get the car, and given up his apartment to use the rent money as well, he had moved into Harvey's.

The doorman was the only one in the building who was aware of this arrangement, but because of the situation, he had agreed to be quiet.

He dead bolted the door behind him as usual and looked around the living room for any signs that Harvey had just come home and was waiting for him, but there was nothing.

The suit still hung from the bedroom door, Mike didn't have the heart to move it yet. He hadn't really touched anything of Harvey's actually, not even the coffee cup that sat in the sink. If he used the sink, he would just move it to the counter and replace it after he was done.

He realized that this behaviour would probably classify him as a mad man, but he didn't care.

He showered quickly, and threw on old pajamas and climbed into Harvey's bed. He was exhausted from the search, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet.

He took in a deep breath of Harvey's scent from the pillow and fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

When he heard the door open, he jumped into action. Grabbing the long iron slat he held it like a baseball bat and stood beside the door with his back pressed into the stone and waited.

This was the first time that he hoped it was someone coming for him. He was ready, every nerve ending buzzing with adrenaline and anticipation but then he heard another door open and realized they weren't there for him.

This process was repeated twice more as the men in charge came and went, but none came for him.

He slid down to the floor and stared at the wall.

It seemed like hours before he heard the door again, but he jumped back up into position again as fast as he could. He heard whistling as the man came down the hall and realized it was Jeff. Harvey braced himself, getting into a position that would give him the most impact and waited like a cat ready to pounce.

He heard the key going into the lock and Jeff started talking before he even opened the door.

"Hey Harvey, where are you? I came to see how you are doing today. Do you want some breakfast?"

As soon as he took a step in the door Harvey swung as hard as he could at the other man's head. He knew knocking him out cold was his best chance to get one hell of a head start running, but just knocking him over would help as well.

He connected squarely with Jeff's forehead and the larger man slumped to the floor. Harvey didn't even think and grabbed the key ring from the floor, jumped over Jeff's body and started running. Once he reached the first door, he searched quickly for the key he had memorized as being the right one. Every second felt like a minute and he was terrified that he wouldn't even get through this door before they came and got him. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the hall to be empty however, aside from Jeff's feet sticking out of his cell door.

He finally managed to force the key into the lock and turn it and then was running again, towards the daylight. He had no idea if this next door would be locked or not, but he now heard voices behind him and knew they were after him.

The door wasn't locked when he ran up the few stairs and body slammed into it, unable to slow down fast enough, but it was old and fairly well stuck in its frame.

"Harvey! Get back here!" He recognized Carl's voice and panic welled in him. He backed up a few feet and threw himself into the door a second time, then a third time, before it finally shattered from age and force and he stumbled blindly out into the sunlight. Having been living essentially in the dark for thirty-seven days, his eyes teared up from the brightness and he had trouble keeping them open, but he forced his feet to keep moving. Squinting he headed for the trees as fast as he could with bare feet on slippery morning grass. He heard Carl yell behind him again and knew he was closer than the last time. This propelled Harvey faster into the trees and even as he tripped over logs and fell multiple times, injuring himself in numerous ways, he kept getting up and running. The branches from the trees smacking his face stung and he ducked as much as he could without losing speed. He could hear something in the distance, it sounded like rushing water, and he turned towards it. Water would provide a faster escape and would likely lead to some amount of humanity somewhere. Carl anticipated his move though and came at him diagonally, Harvey saw him only seconds before the hand grasped his shirt and tugged him down to the ground.

He wasn't giving in. He wasn't going back, every fibre of his being fought back and he kicked and punched and managed to somehow get out from under Carl's grip and crawled forward a few feet before finding a baseball sized rock that he grasped and swung around and whipped at Carl's head. The large man didn't see it in time and took it off the side of the face, knocking him backwards and loosening his grip on Harvey's foot.

Harvey jumped up and took off again, he could see the water now. It was a river, a fairly large, very swift moving one, he couldn't see a lot of rocks, this was good. It was clear he couldn't outrun Carl, but he could ride the river, it would move him quicker. He ran straight for the water's edge and waded in. The water was freezing and shocked his body, but he continued on. He felt the current grabbing at his legs and let it take him, using his arms to keep his head afloat he let the fast moving water carry him away. He knew he couldn't stay in the water long because of the temperature, but he had to get enough distance that Carl couldn't catch up; at least he hoped he wouldn't.

He watched the trees flying by and kept an eye on the side where he had last seen Carl and didn't see anyone or hear anyone and pretty soon he was a good couple of miles away from where he had got in the water.

When his arms started to feel numb from the cold, he knew it was time to get out, hypothermia was a definite possibility, but he hoped by keeping moving he could hold it off for a while.

Kicking and swimming as much as he could he made his way over to the other side of the river and eventually managed to grab part of a tree that was hanging over the water. Using the tree to pull himself towards shore, he crawled out onto the silt and collapsed for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath and regain his energy.

Getting up on to all fours and then slowly onto his feet, he started stumbling forwards again. His entire body was shivering, but he kept plodding on, to where, he had no idea.

He thought of Mike; that gave him the strength to keep moving.

He managed to keep this up through most of the day, the slow plodding forward, eventually he came into an area of the woods that felt as though humans had touched it. There were a few candy wrappers and empty beer cans on the ground. Exhaustion hitting him full on he slumped down beside a tree and decided to wait. People came to this area, they had before, they would again; someone would be there soon. The sun had almost set at this point, and without being able to see anything, he knew continuing was that much more dangerous and difficult. He had to wait it out. If no one came, he would continue in the morning. But at that moment, though he knew it was dangerous to do so, he just needed to sleep.

* * *

The sun had gone down, so Mike gathered his coat and flashlight and headed out to the elevator. As the door opened he was greeted by Jeff; who was looking more than a little worse for wear. There was one hell of a large gash on his forehead that was quite swollen and angry looking.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Jeff just waved his hand, "perp tried to take me out, but I'll get him in the end."

The underlying threat was a little unnerving, Mike got the feeling that this was more personal but he had no idea how or why.

"Where are you going Mike? I thought we could go through the papers together?"

Mike hadn't told anyone of his nighttime forays into the woods. He wasn't sure why, they just felt personal to him, and he also knew they would try to talk him out of it.

"Uh, home, I already went through the papers and honestly, I'm pretty wiped."

Jeff just stared at him, and Mike wondered what the hell was going on with this guy. Something wasn't right, but he didn't know what, and wasn't sure if he wanted to ask when they were alone in the office together. He slipped past Jeff and got on the elevator and hit the Lobby button.

Jeff watched him and then nodded before walking down the hall towards Harvey's office.

Mike was unsettled by this exchange, Jeff was up to something, but he couldn't figure out what.

He puzzled on it on his way to the woods. After parking in the dirt area he got out his map and flashlight and began his nightly journey. He was aware that the park area was much larger than what he searched, but he had used the locations of the previous bodies along with accessibility from the parking lot to determine a general boundary line. A part of him always felt guilty for not going further in, but he still felt strongly that he was covering the right area. The bodies were always found easily, there was never any effort made to hide them and Mike didn't see why this would change.

He was out for about an hour already before he noticed something that hadn't been there the night before; a flash of white on the ground. He moved towards it cautiously, it appeared to be a t-shirt, no doubt left by errant teenage lovers.

As he got closer though, he realized that someone was wearing the t-shirt, there was a person lying on the ground.

His breath quickened and he couldn't help the hope that crept up that it was Harvey. At the same time, the body wasn't moving; it could be really bad too.

The person was curled into a ball, no doubt from the biting cold so Mike couldn't see a face right away, but his flashlight revealed dark mahogany hair and as he got closer he saw the familiar birthmarks on the man's temple and eyebrow.

It was Harvey.

All caution flew out the window and Mike was suddenly barreling towards the body on the ground. He dove down to Harvey's side and touched his face gently. He was freezing cold, but he jumped at Mike's touch, he was still alive.

Mike immediately took off his coat and laid it over Harvey and then leaned down with his arm around him.

"Harvey? Harvey? Open your eyes, it's Mike, oh my God, you're here, you're alive…"

Harvey tilted his head slightly and opened one eye in surprise, once he caught sight of Mike's face he suddenly jumped upwards and threw his arms around Mike and held on tight.

Mike returned the tight hold, cradling Harvey's head in one hand with the other tight around his waist. He kept hearing Harvey whispering 'I'm sorry' repeatedly, but as overcome with emotion as he was, he couldn't ask why.

They remained this way for a few minutes, gripping each other like lifelines before Harvey's shivering became more violent. Mike quickly calculated the possible length of time it would take for an ambulance to find them, and the amount of time it would take to get to his car. While he had been walking for an hour, he was on his path; he figured the walk to the parking lot was a maximum of twenty minutes. Getting to his car was the better and faster option.

"Ok, your freezing, I have to get you out of here. Can you walk?"

"I can try." Harvey's voice was a scratchy whisper, he was clearly exhausted and it was then that Mike noticed that he didn't have any shoes on. He tried to determine if he could carry Harvey, even part way. Harvey had lost a lot of weight and was now thinner than Mike. This was frightening in itself, but Mike would worry about that later.

He slid his arms under Harvey's and helped him stand. He retrieved his coat from the ground where it had fallen when Harvey had jumped into his arms and helped Harvey put it on. Then he motioned for Harvey to jump on his back. This seemed the easiest way to carry him. He was surprised when Harvey didn't argue, just did as he was told.

Mike found that he could carry Harvey quite easily this way and at a good speed too. He knew adrenaline had something to do with it, but didn't care.

He was right in his calculations about how far they were and soon he could see the moon reflecting off his windshield.

He gently set Harvey down beside the car and unlocked the passenger door and helped him inside.

Harvey looked at the car with some surprise, but didn't ask.

Mike quickly got in the drivers seat and after starting the car, cranked up the heat on Harvey. It took a few seconds to heat up but Harvey accepted the warmth gratefully.

Mike knew he had to get him to a hospital fast, he wasn't out of the woods yet so to speak, and he had no idea what other kinds of injuries he might have. He also needed to notify the police that he had found him. He considered calling Jeff, but then rethought that. After tonight's exchange, Mike just didn't trust him anymore. Instead he dialed Donny's number as he drove. He may not have been as active in Harvey's case the last few weeks, but he still checked in with Mike daily, so he still cared.

"This is Detective Graham speaking."

"I found him."

"I'm sorry, what? Who is this?"

"It's Mike, Donny, I just found him, in Chesapeake Park."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"You found him, what?"

"Yes, I found him, I am taking him to the hospital, meet me there."

"He's alive!" Donny laughed in happiness at this news.

That explained Donny's silence before, he assumed Mike had found him dead.

"Yes, he is, though I think he has hypothermia, I need to get him help, just meet me at the hospital and Donny, don't call Jeff please." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Harvey startle at the name Jeff. This was getting even stranger.

"What, why? Nevermind, we'll worry about that later, I'll see you there."

He could hear Donny scrambling around before he hung up.

He reached over and took Harvey's hand, it was still freezing cold, but the grip was returned eagerly.

Then he heard the whispered question, "who is Jeff?"

"Donny's partner, we have all been working together to find you. And I am so happy that I have, I didn't know if I would ever see you again."

Mike got more emotional as reality set in that Harvey was sitting in his car, he was hurt, and in bad shape, but he was still sitting in the car with him, and that was everything.

Harvey on the other hand, was clearly still stuck on the Jeff conversation.

"What's wrong, do you know Jeff?"

"What does he look like Mike?" He sounded terrified.

His tone made a little trickle of fear creep down Mike's spine.

"Why, what's wrong?"

"Just please, tell me, what does he look like?"

"Uh, around six feet, shaved head, thirtyish, ridiculously giant steroid arms, and tonight he came into the office with one hell of a gash on his forehead, said some perp had surprised him… Harvey, you ok?"  
Harvey looked like he was about to throw up. Mike contemplated pulling over to let him, but figured he would worry about the mess later if Harvey did; they had to keep moving.

"I knew one of them was a cop. He was helping you find me?"

Suddenly it all made sense to Mike. The way that Jeff was always making problems in their progress, the way he talked about Harvey, he was purposely trying to prevent them from finding him. The clues had been there all along and Mike mentally kicked himself for not figuring it out sooner. He also felt sick at the thought of what that son of a bitch had probably done to Harvey. Actually, most definitely done to Harvey.

"He was one of the men holding you." Mike stated this matter-of-factly. He already knew the answer.

"Yes, the gash on his head is courtesy of me. I did it to him this morning when I got away."

"First of all, this may sound corny, but I'm really proud of you for escaping, I know it can't have been easy, you are the first and only one to get out of there alive. Secondly, I will kill that bastard."

Harvey just looked at him with those big brown eyes at his comment. Mike noticed then that his right eye had blood in it. This made his foot go down harder on the gas and he pushed the whining engine to just give him more speed.

When they finally reached the hospital, it appeared that the cavalry had beat them there. The sheer number of flashing lights was almost blinding. He saw Donny clearing a space for him to pull in and then multiple medical personnel were at the passenger side helping Harvey out of the car. There was a problem though; Harvey wouldn't let go of Mike's hand. He looked at Mike panicked that they were taking him somewhere and Mike's heart broke.

"Harvey, it's ok, I'm going with you." And with that he climbed over the centre consol and went out the passenger door with Harvey, just to make him relax.

Donny was by his side peppering him with questions immediately, even as they loaded Harvey onto the stretcher and rushed him inside, Mike still attached at the hand.

"Where did you find him exactly? How did you find him? What had they done this time? Was it different than the others? What the hell were you doing out there anyway?"

"I have been searching every night, and I'm glad I was. He wasn't tied up Donny, he escaped."

Donny stopped following for a second to process this, but quickly caught back up as they went into a treatment room.

A kind doctor was attempting to convince Harvey to let go of Mike's hand so they could get to work on him, but Harvey was still resisting. Mike resisted as well at first, but realized that he was getting in the way, and now that he had a clear view of Harvey in full light, he was badly injured. There were numerous scratches and scrapes on his face, his eye was completely red, not to mention the mess on the bottoms of his feet from running barefoot through the woods. And that was what Mike could see, he could have any number of hidden injuries that needed immediate care. As much as he didn't want to go, he knew Harvey getting medical care was more important than his own personal selfish need to stay.

The sheer level of commotion around Harvey seemed to be overwhelming him, making the decision even harder. Mike leaned down close to him, blocking everyone else out.

"Harvey, I'm not leaving. Ok, I'm never leaving. But I have to let them help you, ok. You're hurt, badly, and they need to help you. I'm going to stand right there," Mike motioned at the window to the room, "where you can see me and I will not leave, I promise."

Harvey considered this for a second, the kind doctor smiled at Mike warmly, and then Harvey as well.

Harvey finally relented. But watched closely as Mike walked out and took up his position. He heard the nice doctor say to everyone else in the room to not block Harvey's view of the window under any circumstances. Mike held eye contact with him as they put in an IV and started pumping warmed fluids into him to combat his lowered temperature.

He was grateful that they were being so understanding of Harvey's mental state and being very gentle and kind with him, explaining what they were going to do before doing it, so he wouldn't get any shocks.

Donny came up beside him in the hallway. He hadn't noticed the detective's departure previously, but he had come back with some very official looking people in black suits.

"Mike, this is Agents Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan of the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit. They have some questions for you regarding how you found Harvey."

Mike felt outraged immediately.

"Seriously, you fucking show up now? Where the hell were you thirty-seven days ago when he went missing? And what, because I found him, I'm now a fucking suspect? You know what, go to hell, I'm not talking to you."

His volume level had gone up quite dramatically through his little rant and when he returned his gaze to Harvey, he met a pair of confused and very frightened eyes. Mike relaxed his face and mouthed 'it's ok' and gave him a small smile.

Harvey relaxed a bit, but kept glancing worriedly at the two agents.

Agent Hotchner appeared unfazed by Mike's outburst.

"Mr. Ross, we aren't accusing you of anything. And we are here now because we were called in by Detective Graham when Travis Tanner disappeared." Mike's head jerked up at this, he didn't know there had been another disappearance. "We're hoping that Harvey might have given you some information that might lead us to where he was held and the rest of the victims currently still being held captive."

Mike was still pissed at them, he didn't care that they had only just been called in, he just kept thinking that if someone had done something sooner, Harvey may not have been taken in the first place.

Harvey had heard what the agent had said through the door though and motioned for them to come in.

The doctors gave them a few minutes. They had stabilized him at that point anyway.

"You need to find them quickly, they will be punished for what I did." He sounded a bit panicky at this. Clearly his main concern was helping the others, and Mike felt completely amazed at this man and his selflessness.

"Ok Harvey, tell us as much as you can about what you saw around you both inside where you were and outside."

"It was a basement of some kind I think, but had cells and it was old, the cells, the doors, everything was at least a hundred years old. It was dark, there were no windows and I think the area where we were held is underground. When I got outside," Harvey paused, attempting to remember, "it was so bright, it was hard to see, but I think I was in a clearing of some kind. There was grass and I had to run to get into the trees."

Agent Morgan spoke up, "were there any landmarks, anything of significance you can remember?"

"A river, I used it to get away because it was fast moving, and very cold, but it was over it's banks, maybe from melting snow."

Suddenly Mike remembered and felt idiotic for not saying it sooner.

"You need to find Jeff."

Harvey shuddered a bit at that name, and Mike grabbed his hand.

Donny had heard this and now joined in, curious as to what the deal was with his partner.

"What do you want with Jeff?"

"He is one the men who held Harvey. That's why he was so interested in my search for Harvey, and hindered me so much. Harvey said he knew one of them was a cop, it's Jeff."  
Agent Hotchner turned to Donny, "where can we find him?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen him since yesterday."

"Before I went out into the woods to search I saw him at the office, he was coming to 'help me'" Mike quoted with his fingers, "but I left before him. He had a massive gash on his forehead, thanks to Harvey." Mike couldn't help but smile a little proudly at that; Harvey had done a good job on the bastard's forehead.

Agent Hotchner jumped into action at this, he had a lead now.

"Ok, we need to put out an APB on him, and Detective Graham, we will need everything you know about him. Morgan, call Garcia, get her digging on him, see if he owns any land anywhere that is remote."

"He wasn't the leader." Harvey had found his voice again. "The leader of the group was a man named Terence, but I know very little about him, Jeff was really just one of Terence's minions."

Agent Morgan considered this, "I'll get her looking for old records of any buildings being out in the forest like that though. From what you describe it might have been an old jail. There can't be that many of those out there that are that age."

With that the three police officials cleared out, each with their tasks to perform. Mike remained with Harvey until they took him to X-Ray because they thought his wrist might be broken.

Once they had completed that and determined that it was just sprained, they stitched all of his cuts and finally moved him to a room. Aside from being underweight, dehydrated and cold, most of his injuries would heal just fine. His eye would heal in a week or so they assured them, it was the result of being hit in the face with a tree branch when he was running. They cleared out and left them alone once they had finished.

Harvey struggled to stay awake, staring at Mike like he wanted to remember every part of his face.

"Mike, I'm sorry."

"Ok, would you stop apologizing, you didn't do anything wrong, none of this is your fault Harvey." He gripped Harvey's hand meaningfully, to reinforce what he was saying.  
Harvey just smiled softly for a second.

"Mike, I'm sorry for what happened between you and me. I'm sorry for not being honest with you then. I wanted that kiss to happen, I know that now, and thinking about you is what has gotten me through this last month."

His eyes glistened at this confession, and Mike's emotions overflowed. He was overjoyed because he loved Harvey so much, and now he was getting some of that back in return. He was also incredibly saddened by what Harvey had been through, his heart hurt with it and he hated not knowing how to comfort him, how to make him forget.

The only comfort he could think of giving was to hold on to him, with all his might, and never letting him go.

He climbed up on the bed beside him, being careful of his bruises and stitches and gathered the shaking man up against his chest. Harvey snuggled right in and sighed softly. Mike gently kissed the top of his head and whispered "I love you."

* * *

Six months, six fucking months, Jeff Wrightman had been his partner, the man he essentially trusted his life with and commiserated with on a daily basis. This same man had kidnapped one of his oldest friends, held him captive and raped him repeatedly.

Donny attempted to compute all of this in his brain, but he just couldn't wrap his head around it. Mike and Harvey seemed so sure it was this Jeff, the same Jeff he shared jokes with over coffee, who was also a secret monster.

He had attempted to get free of the FBI agents to try to find Jeff on his own, to talk to him and find out if it was true, but they were having none of it. So he was stuck with the overly chatty genius who hadn't stopped spouting facts about useless crap the entire time they were in the car.

Ignoring Dr. Reid and his rambling, Donny pulled out his cell phone to try calling Jeff one more time before they busted down his door. He saw the two uniforms approaching, awaiting his instruction. He got voicemail again and had to admit to himself, it wasn't looking good.

When Mike had called him, frantically telling him that he had found Harvey, Donny had immediately put out a call on the radio to get more units to the hospital. He knew damn right well that Jeff would have heard that call, and if he was the monster they were saying he was, he was probably not happy about Harvey still being alive because it meant Harvey could ID him.

The four of them piled up the stairs in Jeff's three storey walk up and Donny pounded on the door.

"Jeff, it's Donny, open up."

If, on the off chance, Jeff was still there and completely innocent, he didn't want to alarm him.

He heard no signs of life on the other side of the door, and nodded at the two uniforms to break the door down.

Jeff's place was as usual, neat and tidy but with hints that a single man lived there. A few pizza boxes in the kitchen, and empty beer bottles piled beside the fridge.

Donny pulled his gun and did a sweep of the living room before heading towards the bedroom. It too was empty, the bed messily made and a few bits of clothing on the floor. Realizing that he had to look for any clues as to where Jeff might be at that moment, and where the other victims were, he started looking through drawers and under the bed. When he got to the closet, he found it neat, but filled with just clothes, nothing of any real substance.

He turned to go join the others in the living room but a strange creak on the floor caught his attention. This was the third floor of an older apartment building, there was no basement below him, so the floor sounding hollow underneath didn't make sense.

Toeing around on the floor boards he discovered one of them loose and bent to have a closer look. The board wasn't attached, it was just laid in its slot. Using his keys he pulled it out and then shone his flashlight into the hole. He could see an envelope inside the floor, a largish brown one that had been slid under the floorboards. Feeling guilty about prying, but now also quite suspicious he pulled it out and examined it. There were no markings on the outside, but it was well worn. He folded open the flap and poured out it's contents. They were pictures, a lot of pictures, around a hundred and fifty of them.

Donny's body went cold. They were all of Harvey. Even worse, several appeared to have been taken in the cell where Harvey had been held, based on Harvey's description. He picked up one close up shot in particular, the edges were curled, it had been handled a lot. Harvey's face was terrified and forlorn. He was not a willing participant in the photo shoot. Donny flipped the picture over and scrawled in Jeff's awkward writing were the words "my love."

Donny felt sick immediately. It was true, this same son of a bitch who had seemed all wide eyed and innocent was a disgusting monster.

Finding Jeff became his priority now, but not because he wanted to help him as before, but now because he wanted to kill him.

He picked up the pictures and put them back in the envelope to take with him. They were evidence now. He went back into the living room where Dr. Reid peppered him with questions about what he had found.

"I'll tell you in the car kid, let's go, we need to find this motherfucker."


	8. Chapter 8

Harvey woke with a start. In the haze it took him a few minutes to remember everything and where he was. It felt odd to not smell damp dirt when waking up. He felt someone next to him and moved closer. He knew who it was without even looking and he wanted nothing more than to lay there in the safety of Mike's arms.

Mike was clearly already awake, he pulled Harvey in closer and gently kissed his forehead. He wasn't sure if Mike had got any sleep at all. He felt tense, clearly he was still processing things as Mike usually did.  
"Hey, how are you feeling?" His voice was soft and gentle though, and very comforting to hear.

Mike was gently tracing his fingers up and down Harvey's back and though Harvey knew it came from a place of restlessness on Mike's part, the feeling was relaxing for him.

"I'm ok, you should try to sleep too."

"I will, when they have caught them."

Harvey sighed; he wanted the same thing. He wondered how the investigation was going along. He had been toying with an idea in his head since he had arrived at the hospital, but hadn't said anything yet because he knew it would be really unpopular, particularly with Mike, but to him, it seemed the fastest way to find the others. He wanted to go back out into the woods, try to retrace his steps and lead the police to where he was held captive. Spending time hunting on the internet for mentions of old jails and attempting to profile the lunatics that had held him captive were methods that were just too slow. He felt guilty for even having slept and feeling so safe and warm where he was when he knew that Travis was still languishing in his tiny, damp cell, being abused relentlessly as punishment for Harvey's disappearance.

The door to the room opened and a nurse came in. Evidently this wasn't her first visit, she just worked around the way the way Harvey was curled into Mike. Clearly she understood their situation.

Once she had left, he broached the subject of his plan with Mike. He knew he was being let out of the hospital that day, well in a few hours really, and he wanted to head straight out to the river and start trying to help.

"Mike, have you heard from Donny or the FBI agents at all. Have they found anything." He knew the answer already of course, because he would have heard something already as it was.

"No, nothing, I guess the search for an old jail turned up nothing. They are trying to grid the area to search it thoroughly but I guess they are having troubles establishing how far out to search."

"I have an idea, of how I can help."

"Yeah, you want me to call them and have them bring the maps in? Maybe you'll be able to give them a better idea of where to search."  
"Well that's kind of my plan, but it's more hands on than that. I think I need to go back out there and try to retrace my steps. I'll know better if I'm seeing the scenery."

Mike stiffened at this. He was definitely against the idea.

"Harvey no, you need to recuperate, rest and take care of yourself right now. Besides, you said last night that you had walked all day, who knows how far you went, you may never be able to find where you had been."

Harvey didn't remember any conversation about how far he had walked, but assumed it had been with Mike when he was half asleep.

"I am aware of that, but I still have to try. Besides, I was injured, so I may have walked all day without really going a big distance. I can't leave them there, Mike. I left them once already, I can't do it again."

"Harvey, it's not your responsibility, they are not your responsibility. I care just as much as you do about them being rescued, but the last thing I want is you putting yourself in any danger to do that. You are more important to me."

"The police, FBI and you will all be with me, I won't be in any danger, and it will be the quickest way to find them. Playing with maps is getting us nowhere, this is our best chance and you know that."

Mike sighed in frustration. Clearly he agreed with Harvey's reasoning, but was still reluctant to allow Harvey to chance going into any harm.

"Ok, but if it's too difficult, or dangerous, or you are in any pain, we are leaving. No argument, ok?"

Harvey nodded against his chest and then sat up. A few hours be damned, the sun was coming up, it was time to get started as far as he was concerned.

"What the hell, we aren't going now Harvey, I have to call Donny and get them all in on the idea, and they might disagree with you, you know. I also have to get you clothes and the doctor has to agree to discharge you, so just relax."

"Call Donny right now, he won't disagree, trust me. And the doctor already said I could leave today. As for clothes, there's a mall across the street, just get some basics, I'll pay you back."

Mike's mouth opened to continue the argument, but clearly he saw it was futile and got up himself. He grabbed his phone and dialed the detective. After a short chat, where Harvey distinctly heard Donny say 'what the hell is he thinking?' an agreement was made to have everyone meet them at the hospital. Mike had even talked Donny into picking up clothes for Harvey, so he wouldn't have to leave.

An hour later Donny and five FBI agents were in the room with Mike and Harvey; Agent's Hotchner and Morgan had been joined by Agent's Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau and David Rossi. The genius Dr. Reid had been sent back to the station with his maps to coordinate from there and keep them on track so they wouldn't get lost.

Harvey had gotten ready quickly with Mike's help and was suitably dressed for the possibility of a blizzard in the Arctic, though it was just Spring in New York state. Evidently Donny had some concerns about his health and well-being.

The doctor had raised an eyebrow about Harvey trekking through the woods in his condition, but had signed off on the promise that he take it easy and not strain himself.

As they rode to the park area where they would begin, Harvey had some butterflies of fear in his stomach about seeing the hell-hole he had spent over a month in again.

They walked out to where Mike had found Harvey only a few hours previous and started there. With help from Dr. Reid they got a heading towards the only river in the area and started walking. Nothing looked familiar for Harvey so far and this worried him. He was starting to think that maybe he had overestimated his ability to do this. He had visions in his mind from his trek through the trees before, but they didn't mesh with what he was seeing now. As they reached the river he looked it over hopefully for any clues but saw nothing. He started just walking northward, against the river's current because at least he knew which direction to go. The others just quietly followed him as he made his way along the bank, Mike was beside him, hands at the ready to steady him if needed.

They walked for almost an hour before something caught Harvey's eye. It was the tree he remembered using to pull himself out of the water.

"I know this, this tree, I used it to get out of the water." To his surprise and slight horror he could see footprints from his bare feet still in the mud on the side.

Agent Morgan radioed their coordinates into Dr. Reid for him to pinpoint them and they continued walking. He knew walking up to where he had jumped in would be longer than riding the river down, but he was buoyed by their findings so far.

They had gone for another two hours, Harvey scanning the trees on the other side for any sign of where he had gone in the water. It had occurred to him that they would have to find a way to cross the river if he did find that spot, but he figured they must have some kind of plan. At least he hoped they did.

"You said it was a clearing right? That you came out of the underground area into." This came from Agent Prentiss, who was right behind him.

"Yeah, it was, I don't remember what shape it was, but it was big. I got the distinct impression that there had been some sort of structure there, that was why it was cleared, but honestly I didn't really stop to look that hard at it."

"I understand, but that might help. Morgan call Reid, tell him to look on Google Earth near here for any big clearings in the trees, and then tell us the coordinates."

He heard Morgan make the call and they kept walking while they waited for the results.

Then Harvey saw it, the spot where he had gone in. He recognized it because he remembered the boulder that had been sitting on the side of the river. It had appeared almost out of place because it was the only big rock in the general vicinity.

"There, I went in the water there."

"You're sure Harvey," Agent Hotchner asked, "how do you know?"

"That boulder, it looks out of place, I remember thinking that at the time because I had looked at the river before getting in to make sure I wouldn't be rolling over big rapids or anything dangerous."

"That rock does look odd there, there must be a waterfall somewhere nearby though." This had come from Mike and they all looked at him questioningly at his theory.

"Why are you looking at me like that, it had to have fallen from somewhere, there aren't any mountains near enough, so a waterfall is the next best option."

Harvey decided it was time to ask how the hell they were going to get over the river.

"Has anyone considered how we are going to cross the water?"

"We walk further and try to find a natural bridge, there has to be something somewhere." Agent Morgan answered.

Harvey was feeling exhausted and his feet were killing him, but he continued on, hoping it wouldn't be far.

The radio buzzed and Dr. Reid gave them coordinates to two different large clearings near their area. As they rounded a bend in the river they came across Mike's waterfall. They hadn't had to travel far to find it and it appeared to have a cavernous area behind it that would provide a good way to get to the other side. It was wet, but it worked.

They retraced their way back down to the boulder and waited while Harvey looked around. He remembered changing directions when he had heard the water, but he didn't remember how far in that had been. There had also been the struggle with Carl that had altered his direction as well. There were no footprints on this side, the water had erased any trace and the branches left no clues. Harvey just started to make his way into the trees, taking each step in what he thought was the right direction. He remember the odd thing along the way, that kept him going, but all the trees really looked the same and he was frequently doubtful that he was going the right way.

Agent Morgan had put the coordinates of the two clearings into his GPS and was tracking which they were heading towards as they went. Harvey suddenly noticed and remembered a fallen tree that he had tripped over and that set them directly towards the nearer clearing.

This propelled them forward faster, they had a final heading now and this set all of the law enforcement officials into action, while Mike grabbed Harvey's arm and held him back to let the men and women with the guns lead from that point on.

As they entered the clearing, Harvey knew it was right. While the others remarked that they couldn't see anything, no doors or entrances, Harvey walked straight forward to a section of the grass that to him, looked different. He remembered then that the door had been covered in grass, as it was flat on the ground, he had to break through it upward. They had obviously done this to hide it from anyone who might happen upon the area. Feeling with his fingers he could feel the smooth wood underneath and motioned the others over.

Mike grabbed Harvey and pulled him back, trying to get him back hidden in the trees, but Harvey knew he needed to go inside, if only to help them find the area where they were all kept, they could easily get lost. He also wanted to go in for catharsis, to finally realize it was over; that he was free.

Mike strongly disagreed with him going in there, but again reluctantly gave in to Harvey. He grabbed his hand and held it firm though, he was going to do this with him.

Morgan and Hotchner got the door open and followed as Donny led the way down with his gun pulled. Harvey and Mike were next and Harvey took a deep breath of fresh air before stepping onto the first step. He was terrified of going back in there, but he knew he had to.

The hallway was as dark and creepy as he remembered. Though it felt hard to believe he had been there only twenty-four hours before, running for his life, it felt longer.

They made it to the two doors, one on the right leading to stairs, the second straight in front leading to the cells. Donny opened the one straight ahead with a swift foot. Harvey knew no one would be down the stairs at that time of day, and it was actually the wrong day for a performance anyway.

The hallway with the cells made Harvey's blood run cold. It was long and dark, save for the tiny squares of light from the door windows. It was also very quiet, and this seemed to unnerve the others, who started wondering in whispers if they were too late, or the other captives had been moved, but Harvey knew better, they were being quiet because they would be punished otherwise. Once he mentioned this in a lowered whisper himself, they had all looked at him with the same mix of sadness and pity before continuing down the hall. Harvey could see he dark hole in the row of lights that was his room, and felt slightly sick.

When they reached the first room, the occupant looked startled at seeing strange faces on the other side of the door, but was quickly relieved to the point of jubilation when he realized they were there to help him.

Realizing they needed keys to open the doors, Jareau stayed at one end of the hall while Morgan and Donny proceeded to the other end to go see if any of the bastards were there at that time and to find keys. They managed to kick the door down easily together because of its age and disappeared through it with their guns drawn. Prentiss and Hotchner went to the door after them to watch for their return and be ready if they needed help. This left Harvey and Mike standing in the middle.

Harvey slowly made his way to the darkened door and found it was actually open.

_No one to keep inside_ , he thought.

Shining his flashlight in, he could feel his heart pounding out of his chest and he took in the familiar room. The bed was made, which he found sickening, and the lamp remained on the table. It was as though they had prepared it for another victim to occupy it. He stepped in slowly and turned the lamp on, casting a yellow glow over everything.

"Is this where they held you?" Mike asked in a whisper.

Harvey just stood there shaking, looking at everything. The walls that he had studied closely for any kind of escape; the bed where they had done unspeakable things to him; the small old side table with the antique lamp that had often been his only comfort. It all haunted him and now he wasn't so sure it was such a good idea for him to come back in there.

Mike was there suddenly, gathering him up in his arms and gently leading him out as he held him. Harvey buried his face in Mike's shoulder; he couldn't look anymore.

"Harvey? You came back to get us." He heard Travis behind him. He turned quickly to the captive man, forgetting about himself for the moment.

The look of extreme gratefulness in Travis' eyes made Harvey feel inadequate. He may have come back, but he still felt very guilty for leaving him behind in the first place. He knew Travis had suffered in the time he was away, he could see it in the other man's eyes. Harvey reached up and grasped Travis' hand through the bars on the door.

"We're getting you out of here, you're safe now."

An odd thumping noise from above told him that the cavalry was arriving, complete with helicopter.

Donny and Morgan returned then with the old key ring. They had found it in an office type area, but the place was devoid of any of the culprits. Either they just weren't in at the moment or they weren't coming back.

The next twenty minutes was spent opening the doors and getting the victims outside where they would be loaded into the helicopter to be taken to safety.

Harvey had helped Travis get outside, the other man clinging to him like a lifeline.

Mike was on Harvey's other side, ever mindful that Harvey was just as injured as the others and needed help himself.

They rode with Travis to the hospital and saw to his care as best they could before Mike decided it was time for Harvey to go home and sleep. When Travis' girlfriend arrived and Harvey was satisfied he wouldn't be alone in the hospital, he gave in to Mike's strong suggestion.

As they rode in a cab on the way home, Mike revealed a confession.

"By the way, I should probably tell you, I moved into your apartment. I needed the money from rent to buy the car so, I started crashing at your place. I'll start looking for somewhere now though, I'll get out of your way." He said this in a way that meant he was hoping for Harvey to tell him to stay. Harvey had no problem with that.  
"No you won't, I want you to stay."

Mike squeezed his hand and looked at him. Harvey just smiled at him, showing that he was perfectly ok with the arrangement of Mike living with him. Mike returned the smile and they were quiet from exhaustion the rest of the cab ride home.

Harvey had been a bit slow entering at first, he was a bit overwhelmed at seeing his home again. Particularly since that dark, dirty hole had pretty much been his home for over a month, it was a tough readjustment.

He noticed the suit hanging on the door handle and laughed a bit.

"You know, you could have at least taken that to the dry cleaners for me."

Harvey had intended to be funny, to make a joke about that situation, but Mike wasn't laughing.

"That suit became my constant reminder of you, and what I used to keep me looking everyday and not giving up."

Harvey could see the emotion on Mike's face and truly felt at that moment what Mike had been through as well. He walked over to Mike and laid his arms around his shoulders before leaning into him. He wanted to remind Mike that he was right there now, home and safe thanks to him. He wasn't sure Mike would ever fully realize just how much the very thought of his face had kept Harvey going. Mike squeezed him tight against his chest for a while.

Realizing Harvey must be tired he let him go. Harvey decided that while he really, really wanted to sleep, he felt like he needed a shower more. Mike helped him get towels and fresh clothes ready before letting Harvey continue on his own.

The shower reinvigorated him and allowed him to feel almost human again. He scrubbed his skin raw, trying to erase any memory of the five men who had abused him relentlessly. He wished he could scrub his brain free of the memories.

After he had dressed he collapsed boneless into bed. Mike was beside him in seconds, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close. Harvey gave in to the comfort and safety and let his body give in to the sleep he so desperately needed.

* * *

Mike lay awake for several hours after Harvey had essentially passed out. He clung to the sleeping man like there was no tomorrow. Harvey felt so thin it was scary, his ribs were pressed into Mike's forearm and the hollow of his spine against Mike's chest.

He couldn't stop thinking about that horrific little room that Harvey had been held in. It just seemed impossible that a room so small could have held such a larger than life man, with more personality, charm and wit than anyone he had ever met. But it had, and a good chunk of that former man was now gone, probably forever.

Mike had never loved someone as much as he did Harvey, aside from his grandmother, but this was a different kind of love. It was the kind that could bring about a murderous need for revenge if anyone were to hurt the one he loved. In this case, Harvey hadn't just been merely hurt, he had been repeatedly tortured and used as device for the pleasure of others. The kind of hate Mike felt burning in his chest for those responsible was overwhelming.

He didn't know what to do about it, how to deal with it. On the one hand he hoped to never cross paths with any of them because he knew he wouldn't be able to control himself, but on the other, getting back at them was exactly what he wanted.

He took a deep breathe to calm himself down. Harvey was there with him now, he knew he needed to just focus on that for the time being.

It occurred to him some time into the night that he hadn't called Donna yet. He was sure she probably knew that Harvey had been found, had escaped, as the news was all over the story of the esteemed lawyer who had finally thwarted the sick bastards and got away. Harvey was being made into a hero for what he had managed to do, both in escaping in the first place, and in going back to save the others.

Mike agreed with the sentiment, Harvey was a hero but he knew that the fragile man he held in his arms felt much differently. To Harvey, he had only done what was right, what he should have done in going back for the others. His selflessness in that astounded Mike and made his affection grow even stronger.

He had a feeling that Harvey was not a fan of the fuss that was growing around him and Mike figured was probably not even at fever pitch yet. He knew Harvey just wanted time to heal, and come to grips with everything, as that is how he always dealt. He intended to make sure he got that.

He also knew that Donna probably knew this as well, which could be why she wasn't there banging on the door to see Harvey. She knew Harvey just as well as Mike did, in fact, she knew him better.

Nevertheless, he made a mental note to call her first thing in the morning, at least to update her, but he knew she would want to see Harvey, sometimes the visual is the only way to believe in something. She would need to see for herself that he was still alive.


	9. Chapter 9

He could smell the faint clean smell of laundry detergent and the room was bright, full of the sun. Again, it took him a minute to remember the entire proceedings of the past few days and to realize that he was at home and no longer buried underground. The relief this brought made him laugh almost hysterically.

He had spent so long believing that he would never see the sun again, let alone his own bed, or his own apartment, or even Mike, who was sitting up on his elbow regarding Harvey curiously for his little outburst. The joy all of this brought him was overwhelming.

When he finally controlled his laughing, he smiled at Mike.

"Sorry, I just never thought I would be here again, I'm a little deliriously happy right now." Another fit of giggles hit.

Mike smiled and then laughed along with him, clearly totally understanding the sentiment.

Once they had both calmed down he rolled over and curled against Mike's chest, taking in his familiar scent. Mike wrapped his arms around him and kissed his forehead while gently running a hand up and down his back again. That simple move was so soothing Harvey knew he would never get enough of it.

"How would feel about a visitor today?"

The question was a bit sudden, but Harvey was curious.

"Who? I presume the FBI and various other local authorities will probably descend at some point today, but I'm guessing you have someone else in mind."

"Well I told Donny to keep all of them away for today, just to give you a day to readjust yourself to home and just relax. I was talking about Donna."

Harvey was happy to hear of the reprieve Mike had arranged for him, but was very willing to see Donna, he had missed her a great deal as well.

"Yes, of course, have you already called her?"

"No, not yet, I wanted to wait until you woke up and I talked to you first. It's your first day home, I didn't want to spring anything on you, though I know she's like family to you."

"I understand, but it's ok, I want to see her."

"Ok, I'll call her in a few minutes, do you want any lunch?"

"Lunch? What time is it?"

"1:30"

"Seriously? I haven't slept in this late since college."  
"You were exhausted, you needed the rest, and still do."

Harvey considered the idea of food, he hadn't been eating much while held captive, and what they offered verged on grotesque most days anyway. Whatever he did manage to eat, he rarely kept down.

He wasn't hungry as such, but figured he should eat something anyway, and he felt well enough to do so.

"Yeah I should try to eat something I guess, but I don't want to overdo it."

Mike gave him a gentle squeeze at this, and Harvey just took in another deep breath of Mike, absorbing him entirely.

Then Mike started moving them off the bed, towards the kitchen. Harvey went along willingly enough, though his feet were proving far more bothersome. He figured that his little foray in the woods the previous day had done little to help the wounds heal. Mike saw him wincing as he walked and quickly helped him to the couch, almost carrying him there. Once he was reasonably assured that Harvey was settled there he padded off into the kitchen.

Harvey watched him for a few minutes, but found his gaze going over the entire room. He absorbed the entire view, trying to remember the last time he was there, or even the last time he had really looked at where he lived. He had paid someone else to decorate for him, being entirely too busy and self important to do it himself and as he looked at a weird, ugly headless human statue on the bookshelf, he realized that he really didn't like it. This made him laugh, it was funny how he was truly taking in and appreciating what he had, even the things he now wanted to get rid of, the statue being first on the list.

His entire life seemed so foreign to him, he had a hard time picturing himself as the ruthless lawyer that he was before, though he knew that man well, it wasn't him anymore. He wasn't sure what to make of this, he knew with certainty that he would never consider what had happened to him to be a good thing, and he knew he would give anything to turn back time to stop himself from getting in that car with Cameron but he had to accept that things were different now. He had to find a new way to cope and move forward.

Thinking of Cameron reminded him that he had some serious questions about his involvement in all of this.

"Mike?" He heard Mike shuffling around the kitchen, putting water in the kettle and by the sounds of things, making toast.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"What does Cameron Dennis have to do with all of this?"

Mike's head popped around the corner, he regarded Harvey for a second before going to the dining table and retrieving some papers, which he brought over to Harvey.

"I had Lola Jenson do some digging. He was profiting off of bringing them new victims, though I suspect the people they wanted were predetermined, they just told him who they wanted and he got them. He was paid a million dollars to deliver you to them."

Harvey stared at the papers, taking in the bank transfers, knowing that this was exactly something Cameron would do.

"You had Lola do this, so there is no way this information could be used in court." It drove Harvey crazy that Cameron was probably going to get away with this.

"Not necessarily, the FBI has that Garcia woman who does pretty much the same thing as Lola, except she's legal, if Lola could find it, I'm sure she could too."

While Mike's optimism was cute, he knew damn right well that Cameron would have found a way to bury the trail even deeper. He set the papers down on the coffee table, somewhat satisfied to finally have an answer, but still angry that Cameron would likely skirt by again.

Mike disappeared into the kitchen at the sound of the kettle and reappeared a few minutes later with toast and tea for Harvey.

He then grabbed the phone and after Harvey nodded at him he called Donna. By the sounds of the conversation, she was overjoyed to hear from him and would be there very soon, pretty much as fast as a cab would carry her.

He sipped at his tea, enjoying the warmth of it as it traveled down his throat. He intended on savouring simple things like this from now on, he knew what it was like to not have the most basic things and he wouldn't forget that either.

It took Donna less than twenty minutes to get there, evidently she had tipped the driver well to put his foot down.

She hadn't been able to even speak when she set eyes on Harvey, she just rushed to him and grabbed a hold of him and made it clear she wasn't letting go for some time.

As a woman who didn't show emotion that often, it was strange to see her like this, but Harvey just let her be. He was very happy to see her as well, though a little less hysterical.

Once she had calmed down a bit, she started asking questions.

"How did you get away? Are you ok? You are so skinny, we will have to do something about that, have you eaten anything today yet?"

Harvey just laughed and gestured at the plate and cup on the table and she smiled and nodded.

"Getting away was a fluke, a simple case of an old bed that broke and gave me a weapon. If that hadn't of happened, I would still be there."

Mike wandered into the room at that point, Harvey had noticed that he hadn't been asking a lot of questions, but he was clearly curious about how Harvey had escaped.

"The furniture was very old, and the bed was made with iron slats instead of a box spring, one of the slats broke off," Harvey carefully avoided saying how, though he suspected Mike had already filled in the blanks. "I used it to take out the next person who came through my door and then I just started running. If it wasn't for the river, I don't think I would have gotten away, I couldn't run fast enough."

Mike and Donna just regarded him silently, both with a lot of emotion in their eyes. Evidently they seemed to think he was superhuman for doing what he had done, but Harvey just felt that he was lucky in a weird sick way. Lucky that Carl had decided to be extra violent that night, breaking the bed. Lucky that Jeff trusted him enough to not be suspicious when he couldn't see Harvey in the room before opening the door. Lucky that the freezing river was there to give him mobility. He didn't see himself as a hero, or special in any way, and he was keenly aware of just how wrong everything could have gone. The really sick truth was that he wasn't even out of this yet, they hadn't caught the bastards yet and this thought had been niggling at the back of his head all day, he felt as though he shouldn't get too comfortable yet.

Donna grasped his hand and then laid her head on his shoulder and sighed softly.

They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening congenially, Mike and Donna seemed to understand that Harvey didn't really want to talk about what had happened to him beyond what he had already said.

Donna insisted on making dinner and rather magically whipped up homemade soup from ingredients that Mike had already bought. Both Harvey and Mike were full of praise at this feat.

They curled together on the couch to watch a movie after dinner. Mike was at one end with Harvey's head on a pillow on his lap; while Donna sat at the other end gently cradling Harvey's feet. They had started to just watch TV, but every station was entirely focused on Harvey and his escape and daring rescue of the others, and he just couldn't handle it. They even had footage of Donna arriving at his building earlier in the day, and he was completely shocked that they were camped out right at that moment at street level. He didn't want this attention and focus on him, he didn't feel like he deserved it. He still felt guilt for leaving the rest of them behind when he ran. For the first time in his life, he felt completely and totally self-conscious. The sheer level of commotion surrounding him was too much for him to take in and he was glad to be sheltered so many floors off of the ground away from the rest of the world.

Harvey dozed off around half way through the movie, feeling safe and warm and surrounded by the people he loved, it was the best feeling in the world.

He could smell the dirt again though, and suddenly felt as though Mike and Donna and being home was all a dream. He was running again, down the hall and it never seemed to end. Then suddenly Jeff was there at the end grabbing him and dragging him back. His hands on his body felt like iron, he couldn't break free. Then they were in his room, the walls felt like they were closing in on him, the ceiling was leaking and dripping on the lamp as Jeff ravished him. He could feel his hands touching him, running over his body, and he could feel him inside of him, impaling him and tearing him apart. He tried screaming but no sound came out, he felt like he couldn't move, his arms and legs were paralyzed, pinned to the bed. He kept hearing his name, someone was saying it over and over, he thought it was Jeff, but realized it was coming from far away.

"Harvey? Harvey! Wake up, your at home, it's ok, come on Harvey wake up."

It was Mike's voice. Harvey sat up with a jolt, and every muscle complained. The dream melted away and he returned to reality. He realized he had been having a nightmare, and that he really was home and suddenly he felt a few tears slide down his cheeks. His heart was still pounding in his chest, but he was so relieved that it wasn't real he could barely breathe.

Mike pulled him into his arms and cradled him gently, whispering, "shh, it's ok" in his ear while softly rocking him.

As his heart slowed and he was able to regain control over his faculties he calmed down. He realized that Donna was no longer there, though it appeared to be quite late. Obviously Mike hadn't wanted to move him from the couch, assuming he was sound asleep.

"Are you ok? Do you want to talk about it?"

Harvey shook his head, he didn't think he could talk about it, even if he did want to.

"No, let's just go to bed."

"Ok"

As Mike helped him hobble to the bed, he was again grateful for what he had, he just hoped it would stay that way.

* * *

Agent Hotchner and Donny arrived early in the morning, as Harvey expected they would. He knew he had to give a statement, if nothing else and he also knew that although he was home, this was far from over.

Mike made coffee for everyone while they settled in the living room. Harvey curled up in a chair and prepared himself to start talking. He decided he would open with a question first.

"Have you found any of them?"

Donny shook his head, clearly frustrated at their lack of progress.

"We're hoping you can help us fill in some blanks, so we can figure out where they might be hiding themselves." Agent Hotchner had directed this at him and Harvey wracked his brain. The five of them had been so careful to prevent him from knowing anything about them. It wasn't until the night Mike found him in the woods that he found out which one of them was the cop, and he honestly was surprised it was Jeff, he didn't seem bright enough.

"I don't know what to tell you. I only knew three of their names, and first names at that. They did a good job of preventing us from knowing a lot about their identities. They never covered their faces, but I guess that is because we weren't expected to leave alive, if we left at all."

He felt Mike's hand squeeze his shoulder at the end of that statement. Mike seemed to be keenly aware of just how close Harvey had come to death, and he was struggling with that fact.

"We know of Jeff, that is a good start, though we can't locate him. What about the other two whose names you knew. Describe them to us, you might know more than you think."

Attempting to picture their faces was the last thing Harvey wanted to do, but he had to help.

"Um," he took a deep breath, Carl's face was the first he thought of, "there is Carl, he was the first one I met. He was tall, I would guess at around six foot five or more. Dark hair, but kept really short, blue eyes, heavy set, he had a slight accent, though I don't know what it was or where he is from. He never really said a lot."

Agent Hotchner was jotting notes as he talked and looked up and nodded at Harvey when he paused.

"The other whose name I did get is Terence. He is about the same height as me, thin build, but he is muscular, I think he is of Latin descent. He has dark curly hair that he keeps fairly short, dark skin, dark brown eyes. He was always impeccably dressed, always in an expensive shirt or suit, I get the impression he takes care of himself, and he could potentially hold some kind of high profile job."

"Did it seem as though they all held jobs and were coming and going based on their schedules?"

"With Jeff and Carl yeah, I noticed that I only ever saw them first thing in the morning or in the evening, but Terence seemed to come and go at odd times, like he made his own schedule, he could be a drug dealer for all I know."

"Ok, this is good Harvey, this helps us profile them, which helps lead us to them. What about the other two, you don't know their names, anything stand out about them?"

_Other than the fact that they liked to fuck me from behind_ , Harvey thought bitterly.

"No, I never really paid much attention to them, they never spoke to me and I really never got a good look at their faces. They didn't seem to be around nearly as much, at least around me anyway, they all seemed to have their favourites." He caught the look on Mike's face when he said that and instantly regretted saying it.

"I spoke with Travis yesterday and I'm wondering what you can tell me about the gathering as he called it."

"Gathering? I saw them more as performances… Um, well I guess it was their way of showing off what they had. They brought us all to a room where we had to sit and perform in some way. The musicians had to play a piece on their respective instruments, the actors had to do a monologue or something. They were just playing up our talents, reveling in our abilities for their own entertainment."

"Did you ever have to perform?" Mike had asked this, he was clearly horrified about this particular part of Harvey's experience, not that the knowledge of the rape was forgotten.

Harvey sighed, he remembered the first time they had made him get up. He had vowed right from the beginning that he wouldn't give in, but threats of violence and death had a way of making you change your attitude. They had collected his closing statements from the trials he had prosecuted and had him recite one that they chose at random each time. It was humiliating, and he lost all respect for his own words he had written as they were used against him to prove what a narcissistic bastard he could be.

They were all awaiting an answer to Mike's question, and he nodded silently while studying his hands in his lap.

Mike rubbed his face with his hands in frustration and then quietly got up and left the room. Harvey could feel his tension as he passed, but let him go.

"Do you need a break Harvey?" Donny asked, seeing the emotion crossing his face.

In truth, he did, he was starting to shake a bit and felt cold at the memories, but he also just wanted to be done.

"No, let's just get this over with. What else do you want to know?"

"Let's talk about your escape. Tell us from the beginning what you did."

"I found the slat under the bed, where it had fallen after it broke and just waited with it until someone came into my room. I had no idea if I would be able to actually do enough damage to buy me the time to run, but I had to try. Once I knocked Jeff down, I grabbed his keys and started running. I had noticed when they were moving us to and from the performances that I could see some daylight coming from a door near the end of the hall so I ran that direction. The door was old so it didn't take too much effort to get through and then I just kept running until I got to the water."

"They were chasing you?"

"Carl was, he caught up to me once, but I managed to hit him in the face with a rock." He could hear some shuffling near the bedroom door and knew Mike was still listening.

"Ok, so Carl is injured as well."

"I'm not sure I did any damage, the guy is huge, I probably just stunned him more than anything, but it bought me enough time to get to the river."

"How did you break the bed? It is old I know, but welded iron is pretty strong."

Clearly Agent Hotchner's imagination hadn't clued in on this yet. Harvey swallowed hard, he knew this would be difficult, but knowing it didn't help at all.

"Um… Carl… he was pretty violent when he visited me that night."

He heard the angry gasp from the bedroom door and fought the urge to turn around and look, he knew what Mike's face would look like already.

Thankfully, Agent Hotchner didn't need more explanation than that, he just nodded and continued on.

"So it was Jeff you hit first, but Carl was nearby enough to chase after you. Were any of the others there as well?"

"Not that I saw, I only saw Carl chasing me, only heard him so I don't know who else was there, if any of them."

"What time was this do you think?"

"Morning, there was still dew on the grass, but I'm not sure of the hour."

"Did you ever notice that any of them were armed in any way?"

"No, they never carried weapons like a gun or anything, but they always had a syringe with a drug of some kind in it though, which they managed to protect well enough to keep us from grabbing it, but still were able to use it to threaten us. I assume it was the same drug that Cameron used on me in the car when I was abducted, but I don't know. When I think about it now, they did a good job of using the threat of the unknown against us. We didn't know exactly what would happen, which is a great way to get someone to imagine the worst."

"That is a powerful tool, I have seen it used before, but it has to be executed perfectly to work against a group of highly intelligent men like all of you are."

"I'm guessing this helps you profile them."

"Yes, very much so. I think we have what we need right now Harvey, I am going to prepare the profile with the team and we will get a plan together and keep you updated, assuming you want to be?" Harvey nodded. With that he stood and shook Harvey's hand and then turned to Donny. "I'll see you back at the office."

Donny nodded and then turned to Harvey. "Listen, I know that was hard to get through, but I do need you to write up your statement, and I know you know how detailed it needs to be, so if you don't think you can right now just say so."

Harvey considered it, but decided that there was no point putting it off, he would have to do it sometime and now seemed as good a time as any. Mike had gone out to the patio, presumably to cool off and collect his head.

Donny handed Harvey a notepad and a pen and then sat quietly as he wrote.

He discovered that it was much more difficult to do than he had anticipated. Describing each rape in detail was particularly painful and he had to stop several times to close his eyes and just breathe.

Donny was patient and gave him the time he needed, which was just over an hour.

When he had finally finished he felt completely and totally exhausted, it had taken much more out of him than he had expected and he could feel his body shaking from the memories that were so fresh in his head.

Mike had calmed enough to see Donny out at that point and as he did, Harvey got up and ran into the bathroom and threw up. The entire exercise having a complete physical and emotional effect on him, he couldn't stop it from happening.

Mike was with him quickly, putting a damp wash cloth on the back of his neck and gently rubbing his back as he heaved.

When his stomach finally calmed he collapsed onto the floor shaking. Mike just let him lie there on the cold tile for a few minutes with his eyes closed, before nudging him up and helping him get to the sink to rinse his mouth before depositing him in bed. He wanted to sleep so badly it hurt, but every time he closed his eyes he saw them or felt them touching him and it seemed so real, keeping his eyes open was the only way to stay with reality. Mike laid down with him, holding on to him tightly, but not saying anything. He was worried about Mike's reaction to everything so he tilted his head up and looked at his face. He was scared that Mike was distancing himself, having knowledge of what they had done to him, and that he was disgusted by him now.

Mike's face just appeared cool, but he was clearly simmering underneath. He had started running his hand up and down Harvey's back gently again though, in his usual soothing way, and Harvey hoped that was a good sign.

"Mike? Are you ok? What are you thinking?"

He wasn't entirely sure he wanted the answer to the question, but felt it might help if Mike talked it out with him.

Mike looked down at him and his face visibly softened and Harvey saw the same adoration in his eyes and felt his tension ease a little.

"Yeah, I'm ok, I just hate feeling so helpless, like I can't do anything to help you, I can't do anything to help them catch the bastards, I'm just here as dead weight. I hate that feeling."

"You are helping me more than you know, I need you more than you know."

Mike gave him a gentle smile and kissed his forehead.

"I'll be ok once I know they are caught and punished. Though I have ideas on how I would like to punish them myself, sadly I'm sure the New York justice system would strongly disagree with those ideas."

Harvey pressed his face into Mike's chest, inhaling his scent and Mike rested his cheek on the top of his head.

That hand gently soothing his back finally lulled him into sleep.

* * *

He could feel Harvey's breath deepen as he fell asleep against his chest. Seeing him curled up in that chair, looking so small and fragile while he described the hell he had been through had been too much for Mike to handle. But at the same time he couldn't stop listening, because somehow he just had to know.

He was already angry about what they had done, but hearing some of the sick and twisted ways in which they had tortured him turned his anger white hot.

The thought of that son of a bitch Carl raping him so violently that it broke the bed had sent him to the patio, because he knew if he stayed in the room he would have started lashing out.

Even then, as Harvey lay peaceful in his arms he couldn't help the fists that formed as he remembered how soft and frightened Harvey's voice had sounded as he described how the bed had broken.

The really sick part was that he knew he only had essentially scratched the surface on what they had done. The multiple pages Harvey had written as his statement served as a testament to just how much had gone on in those thirty-seven days.

Harvey sighed softly in his sleep and nuzzled a little closer. Mike did feel better knowing that at least Harvey felt safe with him, that he was helping in that small way. But Mike also was aware of just how vulnerable they were. This little organization had been going on for some time, and they technically still hadn't been caught, despite all of their victims being rescued. These guys were smart, methodical and capable of anything. Harvey's apartment was like a fortress in many ways but Mike couldn't help still feel that Harvey was in danger. He was scared of them seeking revenge on him for escaping and helping rescue the others. He had to stay alert, and stay at Harvey's side at all times.

He decided to call Lola later, to see if she had found anything else, and to get her doing some searching on Terence. If he was a businessman, he had to show up somewhere. The name Terence is not that common.

He knew that the FBI would have their computer whiz doing the same, but he just wasn't confident enough yet that the Garcia woman would be as thorough as Lola could be.

Mike dozed on and off through the afternoon with Harvey. It was around 8 when he heard the knock at the door. Assuming it was Donna he gently untangled himself from Harvey's grasp and went to let her in.

It was a woman on the other side, but not Donna.

"Mike, where is he? Is he ok?"

Jessica looked slightly panicked, and he felt guilty for not calling her sooner.

* * *

The clock said 8:10pm when he woke up. He had no idea what time he had fallen asleep but he did know he was alone in the bed. Peering around, wondering where Mike had gone, and feeling ever so slightly scared at being alone he quickly crept out of the bed and hobbled towards the door.

He could hear voices on the other side, one was Mike, and pressing his ear to the door he quickly identified the other as Jessica.

"He had a really rough day Jessica, the FBI grilled him for over an hour and then he had to write his statement, this is all just…" Mike stopped, caught up after the roller coaster of a day.

"How bad is it?"

"Like every nightmare you can imagine put together plus some. He's so thin, it's scary, and he's trying so hard to stay strong, but I see on his face how hard this is for him. Just talking to them today made him sick with the memories. I don't know how to help him."

"You are helping Mike, by just being here, by taking care of him and letting him know he's not alone."

Clearly Jessica had clued in on just how close their relationship was.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Feeling guilty about eavesdropping, Harvey opened the door to make his presence known. Jessica's mouth dropped open as she took him in. Harvey had been carefully avoiding mirrors, entirely too scared to look at himself because he knew it was bad. Mike was the only one who really looked him in the eyes. He knew that the reason others didn't was not because they felt bad for him, they were creeped out about his bloodied eye. Jessica fell into the creeped out category as well, but she was also quite stuck on his frail frame. She recovered quickly though, in true Jessica fashion and closed the distance between them and pulled him into a warm and genuine hug. Harvey even thought he saw a tear in her eye as she got close to him.

"Hey Jessica."

"Oh Harvey, thank goodness your home."

As she pulled back, she forced herself to look at him full on in the face, clearly trying not to offend him.

"Relax, everyone is creeped out about my eye, but evidently it'll heal quickly."

She smiled at this and laughed a little.

Weakness spread through him quickly and he wobbled a little. Mike was there lightening fast to help him get to a chair before he fell. Worry etched itself on Jessica's face at seeing him in such a fragile state. He had always been such a strong, immovable man, so he knew this was shocking for her. He hated being this weak himself, but it took time for him to get this way, it would take time to heal as well.

Mike hurried off into the kitchen and came back with some water for Harvey and then went back to put water in the kettle to make tea for all of them.

This left Harvey and Jessica together, neither knowing what to say to the other. Harvey considered asking how his clients and cases were, but discovered that he honestly didn't give a fuck. Jessica seemed to be worried about hitting a landmine, so she sat silently for a while, clearly trying to come up with something to say.

"I would ask how you are, but I suspect that is a stupid question at this point."

Harvey laughed once softly.

"It's not a stupid question, but the answer is pretty obvious I think."

"Louis sends his regards."

This made Harvey laugh again.

"I'm sure he's lording over that office like a pig in shit."

"That is pretty much correct."

"How many media vultures are there outside right now?" He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice when he asked this.

"The crowd is pretty expansive. But I'm sure they will tire of you quickly, just wait it out."

"Yeah. I hope so."

Mike returned then with their tea and both Harvey and Jessica were grateful at the distraction.

Mike and Jessica chatted congenially for a few minutes, discussing benign topics designed to not upset Harvey in any way.

Once that ended, the awkward silence picked up again and Jessica took it as the right time to make her exit. She clearly cared about Harvey but just wasn't someone who found dealing with his traumatic experience easy.

She gave him another warm hug before she left and told him to call if he needed anything.

Once she had gone, he moved over to the couch with Mike, who was leaning back against the arm with his legs up, and curled up beside him with his head against his chest. Mike flicked on the TV and found a game playing. Harvey tried to concentrate on it, but found the constant news ticker that repeatedly showed his name to be very distracting. He gave up and closed his eyes, choosing instead to just listen to Mike's heartbeat.

He was just beginning to doze when another knock on the door startled them both. Harvey sat up to let Mike off the couch and watched with curiosity and worry as he went to see who it was. It was after eleven at that point, so there was no way it was just a friendly visitor.

Donny came in a few seconds later.

"Hey Harvey, I don't want to alarm you but there has been a threat made against you, and we're not sure who sent it, but we are going to have officers stationed outside your door from now on."

Harvey felt the shaking start again. He always knew in the back of his mind that this wasn't over, that they would still be after him, but that didn't make it easier to cope with when it became more real.

Mike quickly sat down next to him and slid an arm around his shoulders protectively.

"What is the threat?"

"We, well I, got a letter couriered to me. It essentially said that you belonged to the author of the letter and if they couldn't have you, then nobody could. Now I think it's Jeff, since as you have said, he is obsessed with you and the pictures I found prove that. We are tracing the courier delivery now, but I would rather be safe than sorry and have someone outside keeping an eye on you."

Harvey nodded numbly. Something stuck out to him about the letter.

"It actually said that if he couldn't have me, then nobody could?"  
"Yeah, what are you thinking?"  
"Nothing, I just wondered, it's a weird statement."

"He's a weird fucking guy. Look, I can't stay, but I wanted to let you know. The officers are there now, ok?"  
"Yeah, fine, thanks."

"Your welcome, take care of yourself, we'll talk tomorrow, but call me if there is any issues."

With that he rose and left. Mike followed him and dead bolted the front door before coming back to Harvey and gathering him up.

"Jeff knows about you." Harvey stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?"

"That statement in the letter, about no one having me, that was directed at you. He knows about us."

Mike's eyes widened as he realized Harvey was right.

"We worked together in finding you, he probably picked up on my affection for you during that time."

Harvey curled closer, and mulled it over. He could faintly here low murmurs on the other side of the front door as the two officers assigned to watch over him talked amicably.

"Come on, let's get you back into bed. We have protection now and you need the rest."

While Mike probably meant this to sound calming and comforting to Harvey, the worry in his voice gave him away.

Harvey went along with him anyway though. He knew neither of them would get any sleep that night, and probably not for the foreseeable future either, not until they were all caught.


	10. Chapter 10

The morning brought a new set of officers outside the door who knocked and let them know they were there.

Mike made breakfast of tea and toast again, but Harvey had zero appetite, his stomach was in knots with fear and worry. And he figured Mike was the same way, considering his toast remained mostly untouched as well.

They sat silently on the couch for over an hour, waiting, for what they didn't really know, but there didn't seem to be much else they could do.

When they heard a knock at the door, they assumed it was an update coming, but instead one of the officers handed over the mail.

It was all fairly innocuous, bills and flyers, but one plain envelope was addressed to Harvey. Mike handed it over while continuing to flick through the rest of the mail.

Harvey held the envelope for a second, trying to decipher what it might be before opening in. The instant he had, he wished he hadn't.

There was one small piece of paper inside, with the words "you belong to me" scrawled on them in what appeared to be a great deal of anger. Behind the paper was a photo of Harvey, curled into the corner of his bed in his cell naked. He let out a shaky gasp at seeing it, too choked to do anything else. He knew who had taken that picture, Jeff took pictures of him constantly. Harvey felt immediately sick at seeing one of them and knowing that he had managed to get this message to him was terrifying.

Mike heard him and was beside him immediately. He grabbed the picture and note from Harvey and looked at them in shock for a few seconds before grabbing his phone and calling Donny.

"Donny, Harvey just got a note and a photo from Jeff, I thought someone was checking the mail? What the hell is going on?"

Mike was both freaked out and outraged at the same time.

Harvey could feel his entire body shaking and didn't even know what to do with himself at that moment.

After a few more minutes of Mike curtly informing Donny of how upset he was about this shit making it to Harvey, he heard Mike say he would see him in few minutes. Donny was on his way over.

Mike put the phone down and pulled Harvey up against him, almost into his lap and held onto him tight.

"I'm not letting him get near you, I promise, and this is the last time you will hear anything from him, I will make sure of it."  
The promise sounded good, but Harvey knew there was no way he could keep it without knowing what Jeff's next move would be and only Jeff knew that.

They remained in a tight hold until Donny arrived, with two FBI agents trailing behind him. They each took a turn examining the evidence with gloves on. Harvey felt more mortified each time another one of them examined the nude photo. He knew they couldn't see much because of the position he was sitting in, but it was still embarrassing.

Donny spent a good few minutes in the hall with the officers who had handed over the mail, going up one side of them and down the other for not checking through it first.

Agent Hotchner sat down across from Harvey and gave him a level look while this was going on.

"This might sound strange Harvey, but this is a good thing. He's getting desperate and quickly losing control, which will make getting him that much easier for us."

"You've only received one threat and now one photo, how is that clear proof that he is losing control."

"Donny hasn't spoken to you since last night?"

"No, not since he came and told me about the threat and stationed the guards outside."

"We have received much more than just that one threat, all night we have been getting phone calls, messages, emails, he even sent flowers to Donna at the office this morning. He's losing control, all of his threats and messages indicate that he is very frustrated that he can't get close to you, so he's lashing out."

"He sent something to Donna? Is she ok? Is she under protection too?"

"He wasn't threatening her, he was trying to use her to get a message to you, one that is pretty much the same throughout all of his correspondence, that you belong to him. The fact that you have remained silent and not acknowledged him, or really even been heard from is driving him crazy. He had you for over a month, he knew where you were and what you were doing, he's lost that control and power over you, which is throwing him over the edge."

"Have you released his face to the media yet?"

"No, we don't want him to go underground again."

"Which means that no one knows what he looks like, so he could easily just stand in a crowd and be unnoticed."

Hotchner caught his drift quickly. "Turn the TV on, we need to scan the crowd of reporters." He pulled his phone out of his pocket at lightening speed and was immediately in touch with Garcia, he asked her to start going over all of the footage from outside of Harvey's building and start looking for Jeff.

While he was doing this, he and Agent Morgan stood staring intently at the TV, inspecting every face.

As much as Harvey didn't want to see or acknowledge the circus outside, he started looking too, because he knew he would spot Jeff from a mile away, he knew that face far too well.

Donny joined them and once hearing of what they were thinking, he contacted a friend of his in the media and asked them to have their cameraman sweep the crowd on live TV several times. They switched to that station and all stood staring intently at every face.

It was on the third sweep through that Harvey saw him. Grabbing the remote to pause the live feed he could only point. Jeff stood there, looking like an angry bull, dressed in his blue police uniform. It was the perfect disguise for him there, and the hat covered the wound on his forehead nicely.

Donny grabbed his radio, but Hotchner stopped him. If he used that, Jeff would hear him. Instead he called the other FBI agents and ordered them to get there as fast as they could, but not to draw attention to themselves. Agent Hotchner then went down to the crowd himself, quickly preparing a last minute press interview, as he knew Jeff would never leave if there was the possibility of getting any news on Harvey.

Mike and Harvey could only sit watching as everything unfolded on TV. The cameraman who had been sweeping the crowd quickly swung around to focus on Agent Hotchner as he stepped in front of the crowd and made it known that he wished to speak. Harvey was frustrated that they couldn't see what was happening in the crowd.

Agent Hotchner fed some dribble to the press about how Harvey was doing better but wished to only spend time with close friends and family at the moment, and then asked them all to respect his privacy.

Harvey watched his face closely as he spoke, he could see the Agent's eyes scanning the crowd, watching the goings on, and his expression as he finished told Harvey that things had not gone as planned.

Moments later they were back in Harvey's apartment, with the extra FBI agents in tow.

"What the hell happened? Did you get him?" Mike rushed them right away, desperate to get some positive news.

Agent Morgan sighed, "no, he was gone before we got down there, we think he saw the camera scanning the crowd and got spooked."

Harvey pulled his knees against his chest protectively on the couch, a move that he had perfected while being held captive. He felt despondent at their lack of progress. He was starting to feel like he was being held captive in his own apartment now, and it was by the same people oddly enough. This time they were holding him captive with the fear of the unknown. It was too risky to leave, he didn't know where they were or what they would do.

The others were talking and hashing out other ideas, but he just tuned them out. He really just wanted them to leave, he was tired and feeling hopeless.

Mike picked up on his mood and ushered them all out, they didn't fight him in this as they all had ideas on where they would go next to continue the search.

Once they were gone, the silence was almost deafening. Mike sat down on the couch in front of him and gently squeezed his hand.

"We are getting closer, they almost caught him today, he's making mistakes like Agent Hotchner said, it's only a matter of time."

Harvey just nodded. "I'm going to take a nap, I'm tired."

Mike nodded in return and helped him up and into the bedroom and then bed.

Harvey didn't think he would sleep, he just wanted to lie in bed and hide from the world. But once he laid down, he realized just how tired he really was and was out pretty quickly.

* * *

When he woke up, he was curled up against Mike as usual. He assumed Mike was out cold because he was more draped around Harvey than holding on. He knew Mike was tired too, and was glad he was getting some rest.

He nuzzled closer and closed his eyes again, but a feeling washed over him. It was eerie and made all of the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It was like someone was watching him. He was also becoming aware of the fact that Mike was disturbingly unresponsive to any movement he made. Even in the depths of sleep, if Harvey moved, Mike instinctively tightened his hold on Harvey, and he wasn't doing that now. Harvey opened his eyes and looked at Mike's face, it was so slack that Harvey knew immediately he wasn't sleeping. Feeling panic welling in his chest, he started shaking Mike's shoulder to try to wake him anyway. He got no response so he increased the shaking, he knew it wasn't doing anything, but he was full on panicking at that point.

"He's not sleeping Harvey, he won't wake up for a while."

Harvey went silent and still. That voice made his blood run cold and the bile go up his throat.

He rolled backwards slightly, enough that he could look over his shoulder and see Jeff standing in the corner of his bedroom, staring at him with a mix of amusement and ire.

Harvey's breathing became quick gasps as he struggled for any idea of what the hell to do. He didn't want to leave Mike, but he had to get help, though he knew that he wouldn't even make it to the door before the other man caught him.

Jeff stood up straight from his position against the wall and starting walking towards him.

Without thinking Harvey just moved closer to Mike, despite the fact that he couldn't help him at that moment.

This little move clearly brought out Jeff's possessiveness and he suddenly leapt at the bed, wrenching Harvey from Mike's limp arms and dragging him to the wall where he pressed him full length against it.

"Harvey, your behaviour these last few days displeases me. I can forgive the bump on my head, as I assume you thought I was Carl, I can even forgive your silence for the last few days, but I cannot forgive you lying in the arms of another man."

Harvey had no idea how to respond to this, but after a few minutes deliberation decided it might be best to just placate the lunatic, it would buy him time.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you unhappy. He means nothing to me, you have to believe me."

Jeff glared at him for a few seconds longer before his expression softened and he leaned in and kissed Harvey's forehead. Jeff gently stroked his cheekbones and jaw while studying his face intently.

"My, my, what did you do to your eye my love, that looks nasty, though you are still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

Harvey fought with his own lungs and panic to try to breath more normally as he was getting light headed.

Jeff leaned in then and tried to kiss him on the mouth and instinctively Harvey turned his head. The anger returned and Jeff wrenched Harvey's head back to face him.

"If he means nothing, why won't you kiss me?"

Harvey was really starting to wonder just how much this creep knew about him and Mike. He seemed to have knowledge of everything that had passed between them including the kiss before he had been abducted.

He really didn't have an answer for his question that wouldn't make him angry and so kept silent. This was not acceptable.

"ANSWER ME. You listen to me, you are mine, not his, MINE, and I will have all of you, without argument." His grip on Harvey's face tightened and he could feel his teeth grinding together as his jaw was clamped in the huge fist.

Jeff's face became sinister, he was seething as he fought to keep Harvey to himself.

"He isn't just nothing to you is he? IS HE?"

He barked the second question in Harvey's face, making him jump.

"No, I love him. He is everything to me." Harvey whispered.  
Jeff pulled him away from the wall and slammed him back into it with full force. Harvey felt his legs go weak as the pain radiated through his back, but he managed to remain standing if only because Jeff was still gripping his head.

Jeff made a sound that could only be described as a growl and leaned back in close.

"Why won't you kiss me?"

"Because he was the last person I kissed, and I want it to stay that way, for him to be the only one."

This admission brought on another body slam into the wall and this time Harvey saw stars and everything duplicated in his vision for a few seconds. Jeff continued gripping his face, clearly intent on not allowing Harvey to get his wish he stared at his lips hungrily before diving forward. The flash of movement was so quick Harvey didn't see what it was, but Jeff's face altered entirely after the cracking sound and then he slid down to the floor in front of him limp.

Attempting to focus his eyes he looked up and saw Mike standing in front of him holding a baseball bat that was actually a gift from a client to Harvey.

Mike was wobbling, clearly still under the influence of the drug he had been injected with. He dropped the bat clumsily and started towards Harvey, concern etched on his brow.

Harvey started moving towards him as well, but ended up collapsing into his arms as his body gave out. Mike dragged him away from the limp body on the floor and they sat on the floor entangled for a few minutes. Mike was breathing hard from the effort and the anger. Harvey just sagged into his arms, feeling all at once fully body agony and relief.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Mike seemed to realize that he needed to call for help. On the off chance he hadn't put Jeff into a coma, he would be waking up at some point, and they both agreed that it was best if that didn't happen with only them there.

Mike helped Harvey up and took him with him into the living room to make the phone call. They sat together on the couch as they waited for help to arrive.

* * *

It didn't take long before the place was swarming with various law enforcement officials and EMT's. Harvey and Mike were taken downstairs to be shipped over to the hospital. Mike had had the sanity of mind to grab a hoodie for Harvey before they left and zipped him into it in the elevator, pulling the hood up to conceal him entirely from the cameras outside.

The lights flashing were almost blinding as they walked outside and up into the waiting ambulance. The police had shoved the media back enough to allow unimpeded movement around the front of the building, but they were still as raucous as could be expected.

They were both given a cursory check over at the hospital, Harvey more so, including an X-ray of his bruised shoulder blades, which revealed a slight fracture in the right one. He was otherwise fine, aside from his previous injuries. They fitted him with a sling and he was free to go. Mike had finally become free of the effects of the drug, but willingly gave blood in the hopes that they could finally identify what it was they were using.

Donny arrived and gave them a ride back to the apartment.

Harvey wasn't sure he wanted to go there, it suddenly didn't feel as safe, but Donny assured him that he had had some emergency work done on the alarm system to make it more secure.

The two officers who had been stationed outside the door had also recovered from their drug injections and were sent home to sleep it off. Their statements were the same, that Jeff had walked up to them wearing his police uniform, and they hadn't suspected him until they realized what he was up to, but by then it was too late.

They got through the throng of media quickly and Harvey resumed his fetal position on the couch when they got back inside. Mike sat next to him as they were questioned about the events as they had happened by Agent Prentiss.

Harvey told them everything that Jeff had said, including how he knew about him and Mike, even what had gone on before he was abducted.

Agent Hotchner came forward at this, "he is the one who singled you out we believe. They take their time choosing their victims, and he was likely watching you for months. Do you remember seeing him at any time before you were abducted."

Harvey considered this, but came up blank. Donny filled in the empty space though.

"You have met him Harvey, though I'm not surprised you have forgotten him. It was outside the courthouse, you had just won the Clifford Danner case and I was there testifying for something else. He was there with me because he was my new partner and he was learning how to handle court cases from me."

Harvey wracked his memory until he found the moment Donny was talking about. Jeff had looked entirely different then, smaller and he had hair at that point, no wonder he hadn't connected the two.

"Yeah I remember now, he looked different back then, I barely paid him any attention."

"You were in your own world as usual." Donny laughed.

"Clearly he remembered you though." Hotchner added.

"Do you think he will help you in finding the others?" Mike chimed in.

"That depends on how cooperative he is with us, but we think because he seems to be the weak link in the group, he is our best shot at getting a confession." Hotchner answered.

"I'm pretty good at getting people to talk as well," Agent Morgan added.

"Is he hurt badly?" Mike asked, though his tone indicated that he hoped the answer was yes.

"A concussion, but he's coming around, we're heading over there now to talk to him."

Both Harvey and Mike nodded in unison. The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as the rest of the evidence was collected and the crowd starting leaving.

Once they had all cleared away and the alarm had been set, they laid up on their sides facing each other on the couch as usual, Mike being careful with Harvey's new injury.

It didn't take long before Mike broke the silence.

"So, I'm the last person you kissed?"

Evidently Mike had been listening while he was obtaining the baseball bat.

"Um. Yeah, somehow I have kept it that way." Harvey was feeling self-conscious at this admission. Mike had been very clear with how he felt about Harvey since he had come home, but while Harvey was affectionate in that he cuddled up to Mike and always seemed to be touching him in some way, he was still less overt. This was all foreign territory for him.

Mike gently kissed his forehead and nuzzled his temple, clearly he was pleased about this fact. Harvey couldn't help but laugh a little. Things felt slightly lighter now, without Jeff breathing down their necks. There were still four of them out there, but Jeff had been the biggest threat. His back and shoulder were killing him and he felt so tired and weak that he could sleep for days, but he wasn't feeling as hopeless anymore.

Mike clearly wasn't going to push his luck at that moment and settled in for a nap, expecting Harvey to fall asleep as well. Harvey had another idea. That kiss had been on his mind ever since it had happened. It was the one thing that he held on to as being a good part of him in the worst moments. All he could think at that moment was that he wanted to repeat it, to know that the real thing was as good as the memory of it.

He tilted his head up and gently pressed his lips against Mike's. He felt the younger man start slightly in surprise, but he returned the kiss quickly.

It wasn't nearly as hungry or sexual as the first had been, since Harvey was not in that place whatsoever at that point. It was more loving and gentle, a connection shared between the two of them. When they separated they looked into each others eyes for a few minutes, sharing a silent conversation before Harvey's exhaustion took over and he snuggled in to sleep. He heard Mike whisper 'I love you' into the top of his head and he smiled and whispered it back into Mike's chest.


	11. Chapter 11

Things remained chaotic for the next few days. It turned out that Agent Morgan wasn't lying when he said he could get people to talk and the two unidentified men as well as Carl were quickly located and placed into custody.

The media continued to have a field day around the story and this forced Harvey and Mike to remain locked in the apartment.

Terence was proving more difficult to find. He was the CEO of a large Insurance Company and therefore was the one funding the entire operation, including Cameron's payoffs. This also gave him the funds to flee the country when Harvey had escaped.

The FBI had traced him back to Barcelona, but the process of having him extradited back to New York was long and slow.

The four who were in custody had all plead guilty to avoid the media circus of a trial and because it was strongly impressed upon them that it was their only option.

Harvey was grateful for this, and he assumed the other victims were as well as it meant none of them had to testify.

He had grown to very strongly dislike Anderson Cooper over the last few days. Somehow the man had been granted the ability to go inside the underground dungeon and had done a documentary of sorts on what they had gone through. Harvey hated the fact that as absolutely insane and gratuitous the details he revealed were, they were all correct so he couldn't say otherwise. Somehow the journalist seemed to think that Harvey was the best option for an in-depth interview as well. Harvey strongly disagreed. Mike had done his best to rebuff the constant phone calls, even yelling 'fuck off' into the phone before hanging up a few times, but the man was relentless.

Harvey had finally had to call Jessica and have her deal with the problem with a legal letter of some kind because he couldn't take it anymore. She did so and things finally quieted on the phone.

Donna came to visit constantly, usually bringing food with her because she was still very concerned about Harvey's small frame.

He had also had visits from each of the other men who were held captive with him. They all came to thank him profusely for what he had done but Harvey just rebuffed them, saying that he hadn't really done anything and he truly believed that. Travis was the one who came back a few times and called as well. They had become each others sounding boards, someone who understood who they could talk to openly to wrap their heads around their shared ordeal.

Mike had expressed his happiness that Harvey was open and willing to have these conversations with Travis because he knew they would help him immensely in the healing process in the long run.

The time spent at home had given Harvey the chance to really think about his life and reconsider a lot of choices he had made. Jessica had asked him, when he had called about stopping Anderson Cooper, when he thought he might come back to the office and he honestly didn't have an answer. As he considered it, he wasn't sure he wanted to go back.

He was beginning to realize that life in New York would always be constantly filled with what had happened to him and he was yearning for a fresh start somewhere else.

He hadn't shared these thoughts with Mike yet, though it was a given that he would be asking Mike to come with him, as he knew he couldn't live without the younger man. He also assumed that Donna would follow him wherever he went. But he knew they were all he needed.

As they lay in bed one morning, Harvey decided it was time to tell Mike what he wanted to do, he knew it was going to be hard though.

Mike was rooted in New York, his grandmother was there, his friends, his whole life. Harvey was willing to take his grandmother with them as well, and ensure her comfort for the rest of her life, but he wasn't sure if Mike would be alright with all of this.

Mike was still sleeping so Harvey just looked out the window and started thinking about where he would want to go.

He considered international places, but decided that it would be too much of a hassle for everyone. The furthest he could go to get away from New York and all of its bad memories was the west coast, namely California. He figured Donna would be sold on living near a beach, but he wasn't sure how Mike would feel about such a drastic change.

Mike rustled a bit and started waking up. He smiled at Harvey lovingly as he saw him already awake and leaned forward and kissed his forehead gently.

"You look relaxed, having a good day?"

"Yes, I made a decision about something."

"Oh, I wasn't aware you had a decision to make?"

Mike looked at him curiously. It was now or never, he just hoped Mike would be OK with the idea.

"I want to move."

"Move? This place is safe now, you don't have to worry, unless it's just about the memories here, in which case, I guess I understand. Where to? Jessica's building is nice."

"I was thinking a little further out."

Mike was now really confused.

"What do you mean?"

"How would you feel about moving to California and starting over?"

Mike's eyes widened in shock and he stared at Harvey like he was insane.

"You're a senior partner in one of the largest law firms in New York and you want to just give it all up and start over somewhere, California?"

"Yup. I have to leave this city Mike. I'm forever going to be known for what happened to me. I don't think I will be taken seriously as a lawyer anymore here, and honestly, I'm not sure I want to be a lawyer anymore anyway."

Mike was now flabbergasted. Harvey half expected him to put his hand on his forehead to check for a fever.

"You… what… this is your life? You worked hard for years to get to this point and you want to walk away?"

"Jessica found me in a mail room Mike, being a lawyer was her idea because she thought I had a brilliant mind. I did it because her confidence in me gave me an ego trip. Having to read my closing statements in that room underground made me realize that I am not that man anymore."

Mike's face softened and he nodded in understanding.

"What do you want to do?"

Harvey shrugged. "I have no idea, but I can't live here having people staring at me with pity or curiosity. I loved attention before all of this happened, but that's because it fed my ego, now I would rather avoid attention."

"What about Donna?"

"Oh, I assume she'll come along, we've been together for a lot of years, and she's always been game for whatever I was going to do next."

"What are you going to tell Jessica?"

"The same as I just told you. She'll understand, she won't like it, but I know she'll get it."

"Wait, I can't leave my grandmother."

"I know, I wouldn't expect you to, she'll come as well, I'll take care of her, don't worry."

Mike still looked dubious to the whole scheme, but he seemed to be going along with it, if only to placate Harvey.

"Do me a favour, just take a few more days to think about this. It's only been like ten days that you have been home, that's not enough time to make whole scale decisions like this." Mike obviously thought this was a blip on the radar and Harvey would reconsider.

"Mike, I'm not going to change my mind. You of all people know that. I can't live without you, so I need you to come with me, but I'm begging you not to make me stay here."

Mike pulled Harvey close and held him tight. "Ok, we'll go. If it's what you want, it's what I want."

Harvey sighed into his chest, happy to know that he would soon be free of this city and starting new. He was keenly aware that the memories would follow him, that he would still have to live with what had happened, but he would be able to go outside again, that in it self was a blessing.

After a while they both rose and while Mike was making tea, Harvey called Donna and filled her in on the plan. Donna understood immediately and was game right from the start. Then he got online and starting looking for a place to live. He settled on Pasadena because it seemed quiet enough and a good place to begin fresh.

Then came the really hard part, calling Jessica.

Despite what he had said to Mike, he knew she would be far less understanding.

She was her usual self when she answered.

"Harvey, has Cooper been bugging you again, I have sent him a cease and desist."

"No, no, I wanted to talk about something else."

"Do you have an idea of when you are coming back? I don't want to rush you, but I could really use you."

Harvey felt guilty at that. She had put a lot into his career and he hoped what he was planning to do wouldn't be a slap in the face to her.

"Well I did sort of want to talk about that. Jessica, I'm sorry, but I'm not coming back. I'm leaving New York."

There was dead silence on the other end of the phone for a few long moments. He wondered if she had hung up until he heard her again.

"I'm coming over." Then she hung up.

Mike came out of the bathroom, having showered while Harvey made his phone calls. He took one look at Harvey's face and gave him a look.

"Jessica isn't understanding, is she?"

"Not as such yet, she's coming over."

"Harvey, are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I told you, this is what I want."

Mike nodded, but sighed and went to get dressed. Harvey knew he was asking so much of those he loved, too much really, but he also knew this was what he needed.

He went and showered quickly and got dressed before Jessica arrived.

Her face was like thunder when she came in and Mike quickly cleared out to let them talk.

"Harvey, what in the hell are you talking about? You are not leaving, this is your life here, how could you even consider this?"

"Jessica, I need to do this. I can't stay here. Do you honestly think our clients will take me seriously as their legal representation knowing what happened to me?"

Jessica considered this, clearly she didn't disagree, but she still wasn't happy.

"You have to give them time Harvey, prove to them that you are just as capable, that you are still the same man."

"That's the point Jessica, I'm not, I don't even recognize the person I used to be anymore, and I will never be that person again. I can't just forget about what happened and go back to normal, this is my normal now, and going to California and starting my life over is a part of that."

She sat down on the couch next to him and took his hand.

"Take more time to think about this before you make a firm decision Harvey, I don't want you to end up regretting this."

"I have been thinking about it Jessica, this is what I need to do. I'm sorry if I am disappointing you, but I have to do this."

"What about Mike? Or Donna?" She asked hopefully, thinking that reminding him of them might immediately change his mind.

"They are coming with me."

She didn't look surprised at this, just disappointed.

"I see."

"Jessica, please know that I am grateful for everything you have done for me, but everything is different now, I can't go back, I have to go forward."

She nodded slowly, looking down at her hands for a few seconds before she rose and regarded him in a businesslike manner.

"I will have your senior partner buy in refunded to you. You haven't been in the role for a full year so I see no reason to keep the money."

"You don't have to do that, it's ok…"

"No, it's fine, and I'm sure you could use the money to help you in your new life."

Harvey nodded, it was clearly not up for debate.

With that she left, slamming the door slightly on her way out to express her frustration.

Harvey leaned back in the couch and sighed. Mike came in from the patio and sat down next to him in Jessica's vacated spot.

"I'm guessing she's not taking it well."

"She's relented. I think she's realized she can't change my mind, but no, she's not happy."

"Would you be if you found out you would have to make Louis senior partner?"

Harvey looked at him and laughed. At least Mike seemed to be lightening up.

Mike leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss and then pulled him close. Harvey was counting down the days now until they were gone from this place. The future seemed a bit brighter now.

* * *

_1 Month Later_

"There, last box unpacked."

"Fucking finally."

Harvey looked at Mike and laughed, the younger man did not handle moving well, he had bitched through the entire packing process and then through the entire unpacking process, it was evidently something he really hated doing.

"I promise we won't move again, at least not for a long time, Ok?"

Mike gave him a stern look to keep that promise and then he laughed and leaned over the empty box to kiss Harvey.

They had found a place Santa Monica because Mike and Donna both wanted to be close to the beach. Donna wasn't living with them, but made it clear she wanted them nearby since he was dragging her across the country.

He still didn't have a plan as to what he wanted to do in terms of a career, but decided he was in no hurry. Oddly enough Mike had decided to go back to school in all of the fracas of moving. It wasn't to study law though; instead he had decided he wanted to be a doctor. Harvey supported this decision fully, and was happy that Mike seemed to have a clear view on what he wanted to do now without some hotshot lawyer hiring him and pressuring him, though he knew Mike had no complaints about that.

Harvey had oddly started considering writing a book. Not an autobiography of any kind, but some kind of fiction, something that would provide an escape and distraction for him. He fully intended to use a pen name, but he hadn't really decided on what to write yet. But again, he figured that he had time. Lots of it, and he loved that.

Donna had quickly found a job as an assistant in a law firm near by, after the glowing review Harvey gave her, they didn't have a choice but to hire her. She complained that it wasn't as exciting and fun as working for Harvey, but she was happy nonetheless.

He hadn't heard from Jessica since she had dropped off the half a million dollar cheque to reimburse Harvey for his buy-in. She hadn't even said much at that point, she was clearly angry about his decision and he wasn't sure she would ever forgive him. He had heard a few days back that Louis had been made Senior Partner and that made him laugh a little. There was a time that that would have been the worst thing in the world for him, but now he was happy for Louis, and wished him nothing but the best.

Once they had crushed the box and added it to the rather large recycling pile in the garage they went out back and sat together on the old wooden bench that had come with the house. Mike had wanted to go get something nicer, a glider or hammock perhaps to sit on the beach with, but Harvey found he was kind of partial to that old bench. It was in a bit of disrepair, but it had charm and character and he fully intended to use his spare time to restore it. Mike had looked at him and snorted a laugh when he had mentioned his plan, but said nothing.

He sat now in Mike's arms on the rough seat and watched the waves lapping the shore. Harvey wasn't completely happy yet, he still remembered every moment of his torture vividly, but he knew he was on the right road now.

And he had time, lots of it.

_fin_


End file.
